The Egg Freezing Process and Timeline - Here’s What To Expect Each Day

If you're thinking about freezing your eggs, you may be wondering what that process will even look like. How long does egg freezing take? How many injections do you have to do per day? Does the egg retrieval procedure hurt? How many times can you do egg freezing?

We sat down with Dr. Valerie Libby, a fertility doctor at Shady Grove Fertility in Atlanta, to learn everything you should know about the egg freezing process.

Dr. Libby has worked with countless women to freeze their eggs and she has even gone through the egg freezing process herself 5 times!

So she knows all the ins and outs of what to expect from the medications, the timeline, and the egg retrieval procedure itself.

Let's start with the first thing women commonly ask.

How long does the egg freezing process take?

The egg freezing process from start to finish takes about two weeks.

During those two weeks, Dr. Libby shared, you'll have to inject yourself with fertility medications each night to help grow the eggs in your ovaries.

You'll also come in for monitoring appointments at the clinic, so that your doctor can track the growth of your eggs and make sure you are responding well to the medications.

TL;DR. Here's the basic step by step of the egg freezing process. You'll do 2-3 injections per day for 8-14 days. You'll go to the clinic about every other day to monitor your progress. Once you're ready to take the trigger shot, the egg retrieval will be about 36 hours later. Then you're done!

A two-week timeline is a good estimate for egg freezing but keep in mind that the exact number of days your egg freezing cycle takes will depend on how your body responds to the fertility medications.

For example, some women need 10 days of fertility injections in order to grow their follicles large enough, while other women may need 12 or even 14 days of injections before they are ready for the egg retrieval procedure.

Check out all of the fertility doctors in your area that offer egg freezing.

What day of your cycle does egg freezing start?

Your egg freezing cycle starts on the first day of your period, which is marked as Cycle Day 1. Your injections typically start on Cycle Day 2 or Cycle Day 3.

Keep in mind that some women are put on medication such as birth control pills ahead of this in order to prepare you to begin your egg freezing cycle but others don’t require any medications in advance of their period starting.

On the first day of your period, you’ll call your clinic to let them know you’re ready to start your egg freezing cycle.

They’ll make an appointment for you to come into the office, usually on either Cycle Day 2 or Cycle Day 3 for your baseline ultrasound.

So the turnaround time is pretty quick!

Here is an example egg freezing treatment calendar showing what happens each day and when injections typically start. Keep in mind that your calendar may look different depending on the medication protocol chosen for you and how your body responds!

At the baseline ultrasound appointment, your fertility doctor will look at your ovaries to make sure that your follicles are at the right stage to start treatment.

Each follicle in your ovary contains an egg! So the goal will be to grow as many of these follicles as possible so that you can freeze multiple eggs during your cycle.

During your baseline appointment, you’ll also have blood work to measure your fertility hormones, particularly FSH, which stands for Follicle Stimulating Hormone.

FSH is aptly named as the role of this hormone throughout the first half of your cycle is to stimulate the follicles in your ovaries to grow and develop your eggs! This is the same molecule that is in the fertility injections you’ll be taking in the next step, just at a much higher dose than what your body normally produces.

Your FSH level should be low at the very beginning of your cycle as no eggs should be growing yet.

If everything looks good at your baseline appointment and you’re cleared to start your egg freezing cycle, you’ll likely begin injections that same night! 🤗

Here’s a rough example of each day of the egg freezing process. The actual number of days for injections may vary and the days that medications are introduced into your protocol will be decided real time during your cycle as your doctor gets more information on how your treatment is going.

Steps of the Egg Freezing Timeline

Cycle Day 1 First day of your period 🩸
Day 2 Morning baseline ultrasound and blood work appointment 👩‍⚕️
Day 2 Begin fertility injections in the evening 💉💉
Day 3 Continue fertility injections in the evening 💉💉
Day 4 Continue fertility injections in the evening 💉💉
Day 5 Continue fertility injections in the evening 💉💉
Day 6 Continue fertility injections in the evening 💉💉
Days ~7-14 Continue injections in the evening, may also add a 3rd medication at this point; ultrasound and blood work appointments roughly every other day 💉💉💉👩‍⚕️📈
Day ~14 Inject trigger shot at the exact time your clinic tells you, the egg retrieval will be 36 hours later ⏰
Day 16 Egg retrieval day, egg freezing cycle completed! 🥚❄️🥳

How many injections are needed per day for egg freezing?

As you may have heard, in order to get as many eggs frozen as possible, you will have to inject yourself with fertility medications. Yes, you will inject yourself! Unless you can convince a friend to inject you every night for about two weeks.

When it comes to how many injections you’ll do per day for egg freezing, you start off doing about 2 injections per day and several days later, you’ll add in a third injection to your routine.

We start with 2 injections a night and then a little bit later on in your cycle, after like 5 to 7 days, we'll maybe add in a 3rd injection.

This third injection, known as an antagonist, will help prevent your body from ovulating your eggs too soon. You don’t want to ovulate your eggs prior to the retrieval!

It is usually introduced around your 5th to 7th day of injections after your doctor confirms that you’re responding well to the medications and that your follicles are growing.

The injections for egg freezing are subcutaneous injections into your belly and are to be done every night, usually within a certain time window, of around 7pm-10pm. You will simply pinch your belly skin and inject the medication.

But never fear!

Dr. Libby assured us that the injections are very quick and you barely feel them. 👌

Clinics always have a teaching session ahead of time as well so that you are fully prepared and videos are available to follow along with.

The trickiest part seemed to be getting the medications organized and ready ahead of time!

Check out all of the fertility doctors in your area that offer egg freezing.

At what stage are your eggs frozen?

At what point will the egg freezing process actually take place?

That will happen on the day of your egg retrieval!

Ok, so when’s the egg retrieval?

The timing of your egg retrieval depends on how your body responds to the fertility injections.

Your doctor is checking at every appointment during your cycle that your body is responding to the fertility medications as intended.

Usually you'll be ready for the egg retrieval after roughly 9-14 days of injections.

While you’re doing the injections, your ovaries should be responding to the FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) in the medications by growing the follicles in your ovaries larger and larger every day.

Your doctor is then checking by ultrasound at every visit to see how large your follicles are.

Once your follicles are large enough, then you are ready for your egg retrieval. 👍

But there’s one final medication you’ll have to inject before your retrieval can take place - the trigger shot.

The trigger injection is the final medication you’ll take during your egg freezing cycle. The most common type of trigger injection women take works by mimicking the LH surge your body normally experiences right before you ovulate.

This LH surge signals to your ovaries that it is time to finish up maturing your eggs and ovulate!

The timing for when you take your trigger injection is very important. Your clinic will give you a very specific time to inject the trigger.

Your egg retrieval will take place about 36 hours after the trigger injection. The reason being, the trigger causes you to ovulate about 36 hours after you inject it.

So you need to inject the trigger at the exact time your clinic tells you to so that you can retrieve all of your eggs and not lose any!

The Egg Retrieval Process

Dr. Libby went into amazing step by step detail on what actually happens the day of your egg retrieval so that you know what to expect. She details this in our full video with her on steps of the egg freezing process. We’ll keep it brief here to give you the main points.

The evening before your egg retrieval, you’ll have to have nothing to eat or drink after midnight.

The next morning you will head in to the clinic for your egg retrieval. You will need to bring someone with you because you’ll be given anesthesia and won’t be able to drive yourself home afterward.

🚱 Nothing to eat or drink after midnight the day before
👯‍♀️ Bring a friend to drive you home after
🏥 Report to the clinic/OR for your egg retrieval
😴 You'll likely be given anesthesia
👩‍⚕️ Fertility doctor will perform the egg retrieval
🔬 Embryologist counts the eggs as they are retrieved
🏠 You head home to rest
❄️ Egg freezing time!

Before entering the operating room, you’ll meet the staff and get changed into a hospital gown. Once you’re in the operating room, you’ll lie down, the doctor will likely go over your plans around this egg freezing cycle and then you’ll be given anesthesia. So, you won’t remember anything else that happens beyond this point.

The fertility doctor will then begin the process of retrieving your eggs!

Is the egg retrieval painful?

No! Dr. Libby assures us that you will not feel a thing during the egg retrieval.

You’re typically given anesthesia in the OR, so you won’t feel anything or even remember anything about the procedure.

But you may have some discomfort later that day when you’re home, such as cramping.

Here are our 6 things you should do to post-egg retrieval to minimize discomfort.

How is the egg retrieval procedure done?

Your doctor or another fertility doctor at your clinic will perform your egg retrieval.

Once you are in the OR and under anesthesia, your doctor will begin the egg retrieval process.

The embryology lab is usually connected right next door, so that there can be a quick transfer of the eggs to the embryologist. The embryologist will keep the doctor updated real-time during the retrieval process on how many eggs they are seeing so far.

The eggs are retrieved transvaginally using an ultrasound-guided probe with a needle. On the ultrasound, the doctor will be able to see the follicles in your ovaries on a screen.

They’ll navigate to each follicle and use the needle to aspirate the follicular fluid out of each follicle, which should contain an egg!

This process is repeated for each follicle, removing the fluid to retrieve the egg inside.

While this is taking place, the embryologist will be counting each egg as they see it arrive under their microscope.

Once all of the follicles have collapsed, your doctor will perform a final inspection of your pelvis to make sure that there is no bleeding or issues, clean up, and prepare for you to be wheeled out of the operating room into a recovery room where your friend or family member that you brought along will be waiting.

How long do I have to rest after the egg retrieval?

Dr. Libby assured us that you’ll really only need to take it easy for the rest of the day after your egg retrieval.

Here are 6 things to do to help you recover post-egg retrieval.

The next day, you should be able to return to work and normal life. You’ll also likely be updated at this point on how many mature eggs were retrieved and frozen!

How many times can you do egg freezing?

Once your egg freezing cycle is complete, you’ll likely recap with your doctor on whether you’re happy with the number of eggs you froze.

Your age affects the number of eggs you should freeze to ensure the highest chance of pregnancy in the future.

If your goal was to freeze more eggs than what you got from your cycle, you may be considering doing a second round of egg freezing.

So how many times can you freeze your eggs?

Dr. Libby says that it depends on what your fertility goals are but typically you can do egg freezing up to 5 times.

After that, there’s a question of whether any further cycles would actually provide any further value to you.

How long can eggs stay frozen after egg freezing?

Egg freezing has become much more popular in the last decade as ASRM removed the experimental label in 2012 after reviewing the data and concluding that pregnancy rates with frozen eggs compared favorably to fresh eggs in IVF.

So we only have a decade’s worth of data so far on just how long eggs can stay frozen.

Dr. Libby shares that for now, your eggs can remain frozen indefinitely without worry of them ‘expiring’ or losing viability.

So that’s good news so far!

Should You Freeze Your Eggs?

Speak with a fertility doctor about whether egg freezing makes sense for you!

Check out all of the fertility doctors in your area that offer egg freezing.

If you see one you like, you can schedule a consultation to get some basic fertility testing and have a conversation about whether egg freezing makes sense for you and what the process would look like.

Follow along with Dr. Libby on Instagram!