Egg freezing is a viable fertility preservation option for women for both health and social reasons.
Health Reasons
Egg freezing for health reasons is common when women are facing a health issue such as a cancer diagnosis and treatment journey.
“We frequently freeze eggs for women who have received a cancer diagnosis and are about to undergo chemotherapy, as chemotherapy can trigger menopause,” explains Dr. Raewyn.
The procedure gives couples, or indeed single women, the peace of mind they need at such a stressful time. It also provides hope and a good chance that they may be able to have a healthy, happy family later on.
“The harvest and egg freezing procedure involves an IVF cycle and can be expedited within 24 to 48 hours after they receive their diagnosis,” says Dr. Raewyn.
“Their oncologist will refer the woman to our clinic, where we have methods in place to fast-track the procedure for these cases. Out of pocket expenses are also usually minimised for fertility preservation treatments.”
Dr Raewyn also performs egg freezing procedures on women who have endometriosis, or women who may have undergone fertility testing that revealed they have a low egg reserve and at the time may still be single and still hold hopes of becoming a mother.”
Social Reasons
Around 10 percent of Dr. Raewyn’s clinical practice is comprised of women wishing to freeze their eggs for social reasons.
“These patients typically come to me because they may be concentrating on career, travel, or they perhaps simply have not met the right person, the latter of which is most common,” explains Dr. Raewyn.
“I see a lot of women in their thirties for egg freezing who want to be mums, but they haven’t yet met the right man.They are aware that their eggs are of better quality when they are younger, therefore they are more likely to conceive with a younger egg.”
The Best Time To Freeze Your Eggs
Fertility specialists advise that women look at freezing their eggs at a younger age – 30 and under – when eggs are at their healthiest and most likely to fertilise and produce a healthy baby.
“We recommend freezing at least 15 eggs for a woman aged 35 and under,” says Dr. Raewyn. “However, with age we need to freeze more eggs to give a woman the best possible chance of conceiving. So, at 40 years old you would need to freeze at least 30 eggs.”
Often women only need one collection round to achieve this amount, but some require more, sometimes a few rounds. “Every case is unique, and we treat each patient according to their unique needs,” explains Dr. Raewyn.
How Long Can Eggs Be Stored?
There is no time limit on freezing either eggs or sperm in Australia, however frozen embryos, which are considered to be a potential human, can only be frozen for a period of 10 years, and after that they have to be destroyed.
Donor Sperm
“Of course, it is impossible to discuss egg freezing without talking about sperm donors,” says Dr. Raewyn. “Around 30 percent of my patients are women wanting to conceive with donor sperm. We have a lot of lovely men who wish to donate sperm and do so.”
