Freezing eggs (or oocyte freezing) of young(ish) women to preserve fertility options is known as social egg freezing. Egg freezing is also used by cancer patients to preserve their fertility before they begin treatment. We discuss using frozen donor eggs from an egg bank in our section on egg donation.
Social egg freezing is controversial because some fear that it may give a false sense of security and might encourage women to postpone getting pregnant. Donor egg banks are reporting successful pregnancies with eggs frozen from women in their 20s, but most women wanting to freeze their own eggs for future use are in their late 30s. Successful egg freezing when a woman is in this age range is not well-established.
However, social egg freezing is gaining in popularity because it is often the only option for women who want to have a biological child with their own eggs, but are either not ready or have not found a partner with whom to parent. If possible it is best to freeze eggs before the age of 35.
Grants are available for cancer patients to cover the cost of egg freezing.
Creating a Family has resources on social egg freezing and egg freezing for cancer patients. A few we think you will find particularly helpful are:
- Should I Freeze My Eggs? If So, When? (blog post)
- Is Elective Egg Freezing All It’s Cracked Up to Be? (blog post)
- Should You Freeze Your Eggs if You’re Not Ready to Have Kids? (blog post)
- Fertility Preservation and Egg Freezing (1 hr. radio interview w/expert)
- Preserving Fertility With Cancer: Should you? Can you? How to pay for it? (1 hr. radio interview w/ expert)
More Creating a Family radio interviews with experts, videos, blogs, fact sheets, and Q & A’s with Experts on egg freezing can be found at the icons below.
Source: Creating a Family shows below
Image credit: Mike Nelson
Additional Resources
