This is how many eggs you should freeze based on your age

Egg freezing is getting very popular, as awareness about fertility and how age affects the ability to get pregnant is becoming more commonly talked about.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine removed the 'experimental' label for egg freezing in 2012, stating that treatment outcomes using frozen eggs compared favorably to fresh eggs, giving many women a valuable tool to take their future into their own hands and preserve their fertility.

More employers are starting to offer insurance coverage for egg freezing than ever before and with women deciding to have children later in life, fertility preservation is becoming more important.

With the rise in egg freezing, more women are asking the questions:

1. When should I freeze my eggs?
2. How many eggs do I need to freeze?

If you’re going to be shelling out money and time to preserve your fertility, you obviously want to make sure that once your eggs are on ice, you can use them to have children in the future. 

A recent, large study on egg freezing set out to give women more clarity on what to expect from their egg freezing cycle.

One important thing to note here ladies, egg freezing is not a guarantee that you'll be able to have children. But freezing as many good quality eggs as you can will give you the best chances of having a baby if you do need to use your frozen eggs in the future to get pregnant.

Egg quality declines with age so freezing your eggs now certainly gives you a better chance of conceiving as opposed to using your eggs when you’re older.

It depends! The research suggests that the older you are, the more eggs you need to freeze to achieve the same result as a younger woman.

A large 2020 study at Extend Fertility, a fertility clinic in New York that specializes in egg freezing, looked at the likelihood that women will achieve a 70% live birth rate from their frozen eggs after doing just one or two egg freezing cycles. 

In this study, the optimal outcome was freezing enough eggs to attain an estimated 70% chance of a live baby being born from these eggs in the future.

The above table shows the numbers to hit in order to feel comfortable with the amount of eggs you have frozen.

For example, if you are 37 years old, you should freeze at least 10 eggs in order to attain the highest chance of having a child.

If you are 38 years old, you should aim to freeze 16 eggs to reach the same chance of having a baby. 

If you don’t freeze the number of eggs you expected in your first round, you may want to discuss with your doctor whether a second round of egg freezing makes sense for your goals.

Read on to see the results from over 1,200 women!

Ok, so you know how many eggs you want to freeze but that may not be how many you are actually able to freeze in one cycle.

Many women commonly think that if they do a single cycle of egg freezing, that means they were successful and they've done enough to preserve their fertility. This isn't always the case.

Success with egg freezing shouldn't be measured on whether you were able to freeze eggs or not, but instead by how the number of eggs frozen affects your chances of a successful pregnancy when using these eggs in the future. 

Some women meet their egg freezing goal from just one cycle, while other women may need to do a second egg freezing cycle to give them the best chances of having a baby in the future. 

The study from Extend Fertility looked at egg freezing cycles for over 1,200 women and reported the average number of eggs women of different ages are able to freeze versus the optimal number of eggs they should freeze.

The number of egg freezing cycles you may need depends on your age. Half of the women in the study were able to freeze the optimal number of eggs in their first cycle. 

Two thirds of women in their 20s and early 30s just needed one egg freezing cycle to freeze the ideal number of eggs. This success rate lowered as age increased.

Women in their mid-thirties successfully froze enough eggs from their first egg freezing cycle about half the time, so 1 in 2.

Only 1 in 5 of women in their late thirties froze the optimal number of eggs from one cycle.

If you are 35, you should aim to freeze at least 10 eggs. 

One egg freezing cycle resulted in 12 eggs frozen on average for this age group.

So many women only needed to do one cycle of egg freezing to achieve the optimal egg number!

If you're 38 years old, you may need to plan for 2 cycles of egg freezing. 

If you are 38 years old, you should try to freeze at least 16 eggs. On average, one egg freezing cycle led to 10 eggs frozen for this age group. 

So while some women may reach their desired number of eggs without any issues, others may need to do a second or even third cycle, depending on their unique fertility status.

A big drop off in egg freezing success was seen for women in their forties.

For example, a woman who is 42 should aim to freeze about 28 eggs to give her the optimal chance of success later when using these eggs to get pregnant. 

However, women of this age were only able to freeze an average of 7 eggs in a cycle. 

At this point, you should discuss with your doctor whether it makes sense to freeze your eggs given your age and whether you should consider alternative options.

TL;DR: The younger you are, the better. 

Depending on your medical history and your age, your doctor will recommend an estimated number of eggs to freeze in order to give you the best chance of having a child in the future. 

Younger women often end up freezing more eggs than their goal, which is great! 

The group that had the best egg freezing results were women younger than 35 years old. 

Most of these women only needed to do one egg freezing cycle to reach the recommended number of eggs to freeze.

As you get older, your likelihood of freezing enough eggs from just one cycle decreases. So women who are older when they freeze their eggs may need to do multiple rounds of egg freezing.

As women age, egg quality diminishes. This means that you need to freeze more eggs than someone who is younger in order to ensure your best chances of at least one of your eggs developing and leading to a baby.

The thing that makes this tough is that older women don't often get as many eggs per cycle as someone who is younger.

For example, if you do egg freezing when you're 35 years old, you should freeze at least 10 eggs. This gives you an estimated 70% chance of having a live birth when later using these eggs to get pregnant. 

So freezing 10 eggs is ideal but women in this age group often exceed their goal, freezing an average of 15 eggs in one egg freezing cycle.

If you're 35 or older, you can still freeze your eggs! It just means that you may need to consider doing a second round of egg freezing if you don't meet your goal from the first cycle. 

If you're 38, you should plan for about 2 cycles of egg freezing to give yourself the best chances of having a child from these eggs.

Each person is different. so it's best to get your fertility tested and speak with a reproductive endocrinologist about your options for egg freezing.

Almost all women in the study were able to freeze enough eggs to meet at least an estimated 50% chance of live birth but not all women were able to do so in their first cycle, some needed a second cycle.

Women that froze enough eggs in their first cycle to meet a 70% chance of a future live birth were younger on average and had a higher AMH, which is a hormone level used to estimate ovarian reserve.

Between the group that did freeze enough eggs in their first round and women who did not, the average age was 34 vs 37 years old and the difference in AMH level was 4.01 vs 1.81, respectively.

Learn more about how AMH affects your egg freezing cycle.

So how do you get started if you’re interested in egg freezing? 

You should get fertility testing and speak with a fertility doctor, known as a reproductive endocrinologist. These doctors are OBGYNs that further specialize in reproductive medicine, such as egg freezing. 

They work with women who are interested in preserving their fertility as well as women experiencing infertility who are actively trying to get pregnant. 

If you're wondering whether egg freezing makes sense for you, you should get fertility testing and speak with a reproductive endocrinologist to understand your options.

You can research your egg freezing options using our clinic search tool.

Look up egg freezing options in your area.

Our fertility clinic directory lists hundreds of clinics and doctors across the US to help you do your research! Type your location into the search bar to see a list of all fertility clinics in your area.

On each fertility clinic profile, you can view their IVF success rates, read patient reviews, check out the doctors, and see how close they are to you.

In the US, 99% of fertility clinics offer egg freezing. On a clinic’s profile, you’ll see ‘Egg Freezing’ checked off as a service if they offer it.

When you’re ready to reach out to a clinic for more info, go ahead and contact them by calling or emailing the clinic directly. 

Good luck on your egg freezing cycle! 💕

Tips on preparing your schedule for egg freezing: Freezing your eggs while juggling work and a social life

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