5 Things To Know If You Are Considering Freezing Your Eggs
Many women think about freezing their eggs for a long time before actively making treatment plans
Many women think about freezing their eggs for a long time before actively making treatment plans. It’s definitely not something a woman rushes into, but it is part of her long term family planning strategy. Here are five things to consider if you are thinking about how egg freezing might work for you.
1.Freeze eggs while you’re still young
If you know you want to freeze your eggs, take the plunge while you are younger. The eggs you freeze will be of higher quality, and you’ll be able to achieve more eggs frozen per cycle.
At the other end of the egg freezing journey, younger eggs survive warming better and make more embryos per oocyte vitrified.
Read our latest blog that explores what the best age to freeze your eggs is.
2.Freeze enough eggs to increase your chances of pregnancy
Ovarian reserve varies woman to woman, and at every age, some women who need to complete more than one cycle of treatment to achieve a vitrified egg number that is likely to translate to a high chance of future pregnancy.
3.Choose a great laboratory
Dr Raelia Lew has plenty of runs on the board in terms of making babies from frozen eggs. Women’s Health Melbourne have choosen to work with Life Fertility Clinic Melbourne, a trusted laboratory that spares no expense providing the best globally affirmed egg freezing technology.
4.Researching and choosing a specialist
Many aspects of egg freezing are similar to IVF, but the best outcomes are usually achieved through two key factors. Choosing a doctor who will individualize your care, explain all relevant options to you and help you to set realistic treatment goals will achieve your best outcome.
It may be marginally less expensive to choose a protocolized service. There is, however, no doubt that the best outcomes for a given patient are achieved through personalized care. Think about how you want to be treated during the process. The best option from a patient perspective is to choose a CREI qualified specialist who works with a technology leading laboratory.
Cycle management and procedural skill can affect the outcomes of egg freezing. Ask who will be doing your egg collection procedure as operator skill is extremely important to ensuring all possible eggs are successfully collected. And of course, you will need someone special to help you conceive using your frozen eggs down the track.
5.Having a partner is not a requirement
If what you really want is to be a mum now, you can explore other options. If you are ready to have a baby but don’t have a partner, think about whether having a baby while you are younger may still be the right choice for you.
Conceiving using donor sperm can be achieved with specialist and clinic supported treatment. For more information about sperm donor laws in Victoria, visit the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority’s website, VARTA.org.au.
For more advice on receiving IVF treatments as a single mother, visit our page on IVF for single women.
Written by Dr Raelia Lew
RANZCOG Board Certified CREI Fertility specialist, Gynaecologist and the Director of Women’s Health Melbourne.
Co-host of the Knocked Up Podcast, Co-founder of Ellechemy intimate wellness solutions. Raelia has a PhD in Preconception Health Promotion and Genetic Screening. Raelia is a leading Australian expert in IVF and egg freezing, pioneering a bespoke model of care.