What Is the Ideal Age for Egg Freezing?
Many women want to have children at some point in their lives, but for various reasons they choose to delay starting a family. Unfortunately, women sometimes feel pressure to have a child before they are really ready, because they are worried about their fertility. Egg freezing allows women to preserve eggs so that they can start a family on their own timeframe, when things are right for them.
Women considering egg preservation often wonder about the ideal age for egg freezing. Fertility specialists at the Los Angeles Reproductive Center, serving Encino, Bakersfield, and Los Angeles, CA, help patients determine the right time to undergo egg freezing, so that the maximum number of healthy, viable eggs can be preserved.
Age and Ovarian Reserve
Before considering the ideal age for egg freezing, it is important to understand why age matters, and how a woman’s age affects her ovarian reserve. The ovarian reserve describes the number of eggs that a woman has, as well as the quality of those eggs.
Women have a finite number of eggs. Each woman is born with the number of eggs that she will have for her lifetime. When puberty starts, those eggs begin being released. Over time, or as a woman ages, the number of eggs declines. As eggs are diminished, the quality of remaining eggs declines as well, making it more difficult to become pregnant.
The Best Time for Egg Freezing
It is important to undergo egg freezing while there are still ample eggs to retrieve, and while the quality of those eggs is good. Most women start to experience a decline in fertility around the age of 35. Between the ages of 35 and 40, the ovarian reserve can diminish rapidly, so that most women over the age of 40 are unable to get pregnant without fertility treatment.
It is difficult to specify one exact age that is best for egg freezing, because every situation is unique. However, considering that most women have a diminished ovarian reserve starting around the age of 35, it is often best for women to undergo egg freezing while they are in their late 20s or early 30s.
There are situations in which the ovarian reserve may be compromised prematurely. Certain medical conditions or medical treatments can affect the quality and/or quantity of a woman’s eggs. If a woman is diagnosed with an illness that is known to impact fertility, or will be undergoing medical treatment that compromises fertility, she may need to consider egg freezing at an earlier age.
Am I Too Old for Egg Freezing?
Some women reach their mid to late 30s and realize that they have not taken any steps to preserve their fertility. Although it is ideal for egg freezing to be done before a woman reaches her late 30s, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t be done after that. Egg freezing candidacy is determined on a case-by-case basis. Our doctors perform a fertility evaluation to assess how many quality eggs are remaining in order to determine the likelihood that egg freezing will be successful for older patients.
Contact Us to Get Started
At the Los Angeles Reproductive Center, we provide a full range of fertility services to help patients take control of their fertility and family planning. If you are interested in learning more about egg freezing or the other treatments we offer, send us a message online, or call (818) 946-8051 at your earliest convenience.