What Is the Ideal Age for Egg Freezing?
Fertility diminishes with age, which can put significant pressure on women who want to have children but also want to grow their career or reach other goals before starting a family. Egg freezing helps preserve fertility, giving women time to delay having children until they’re ready.
When considering egg freezing, many women want to know what is the ideal age for egg freezing. At Omaha, NE, based Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine, PC, we provide consultations to determine which patients are ideal candidates for egg freezing. If you would like to find out if egg freezing is right for you, we welcome you to schedule a consultation.
About Egg Freezing
Egg freezing makes it possible to preserve eggs during a woman’s fertile years for later use when fertility may be waning. During the egg freezing process, medicines are taken to encourage the multiple eggs to mature. When the eggs are ready to be released, they are retrieved from the ovaries.
Harvested eggs are frozen and stored until ready for use. When ready, the frozen eggs are thawed and fertilized through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
When Should Eggs Be Frozen?
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever release in their lifetime. This means that the number of eggs a woman has is finite and they age with her. As a result, a woman’s fertility will decline as she ages, making it difficult to become pregnant later in life.
Freezing eggs can stop the clock and preserve fertility at the age when the eggs were retrieved and frozen. With this in mind, women should consider freezing their eggs as soon as possible.
20s to Mid-30s Is the Ideal Time for Freezing Eggs
Omaha women in their 20s to mid-30s are usually in the ideal age range for freezing eggs. This is because women are typically most fertile between their 20s and mid-30s and will likely produce a higher number of eggs during the retrieval process.
Additionally, a woman’s eggs begin to decline in quality as she ages, which can lead to chromosomal abnormalities and other complications. The decline begins to dramatically increase as early as 35. Freezing eggs before the age of 35 increases the chances of having good quality, healthy eggs.
Can Women Older Than 35 Freeze Their Eggs?
Women over 35 can still benefit from freezing their eggs, especially if they do so before the age of 40. Women who freeze their eggs before 40 have a better chance of successfully becoming pregnant than those who freeze their eggs after 40.
It should be noted that once a woman goes through menopause and stops ovulating, or releasing eggs from her ovaries, she will no longer be able to undergo egg freezing.
Schedule a Consultation
The best way to increase the chances of conceiving later in life is to freeze your eggs during your fertile years. If you are considering egg freezing and would like more information or to find out if it is right for you, please call our Omaha office at (402) 717-4200 or send us a message online.