Freezing Your Eggs

As a 23 year old woman who has been in a relationship for over 4 years, the second most popular question I get, after ‘when are you getting married,’ is ‘when are you having kids?’ Honestly, I am at a point in my life where I am not yet ready to have children, and really do not know if I will ever have a good answer to that question. I have never been the kind of girl who wanted to have kids, but worry that one day I will change my mind and it will be too late. Knowing that egg donation allows you to be more flexible with the timing of that decision (up to age 50!), makes the question of when (or if!) I am having kids a little easier.

When looking to find out more benefits of freezing your eggs, there was a lot of information readily available which I found comforting, as that must mean there are other women in similar situations! Suddenly, I didn’t feel so alone – thousands of women were making the same choice I was and with high success rates when they ultimately chose to conceive! One of my concerns was that freezing the eggs would lower the ultimate conception probability, but in 2010 the number of live births from frozen eggs was 30.6% (at its highest) and will continue to rise!

The convenience and flexibility alone make me think that egg donation is the choice for me. In addition to these factors, egg freezing allows me to conceive a baby later in life that will come from me, and share my genes – something adoption does not. Also, the cost of adoption is the highest it has ever been – while using frozen eggs the price is the lowest it has ever been at $16,500 – including medication!

Freezing my eggs would allow me the option to have children when I am ready, and if I find I am never ready, the option to donate those eggs to a couple who is unable to conceive. Whether I carry the baby myself, or another couple does so, those viable eggs will still be used to bring a baby into this world – and in the end, that is what this is all about!