Egg Freezing Trend: Options Beyond Reproductive Years

In the media, the growing egg freezing trend is often treated as if it were a lifestyle choice, when in fact, for many women it’s the only current option they have available for future reproductive success. For example, the story Fertility Treatment – Freezing Time on ABC in Springfield, Massachusetts this Tuesday, predominately featured couples who elected to participate in egg freezing due to social reasons. While this can happen on occasion, at Shady Grove Fertility the majority of our egg freezing patients are women who must create options based on personal circumstances, timing and health. By freezing one’s eggs, a woman creates family building opportunities beyond her normal reproductive years, providing an option to build a family when the timing is right.

Some women find themselves with dramatically different lives than where they had planned to be, so the choice to freeze their eggs is a matter of timing. The reason some women pursue egg freezing due to unrelated medical conditions such as professional responsibilities, available time, being with the right person, unexpected changes in personal situations, living out of the country, this list goes on. Anonymous women have shared their reasons for freezing both related and unrelated to medical issues (names in this article have been changed):

• Women have found themselves in a different place in life from where they expected to be. This was the case for Alicia, “I thought I had it all. But at 34, I found myself going through a divorce and I was left thinking about when I would ever have children. I knew I was young according to the biological clock, however, to start dating… meet a guy… date for a couple of years… get engaged and plan a wedding, I would be in my late-30s or early-40s and just starting to grow a family. Coming right out of the divorce, I wasn’t ready to rush into a relationship, let alone a serious relationship.”
• For some women, like Susan, the choice to have a baby is a matter of timing, “I am 29 years old and interested in finding out more about my options to potentially have a baby in the future.” While some people may believe women in their late twenties have plenty of time to conceive, Susan explained why she was looking into egg freezing as an option, “I am just recently in a committed relationship, but not thinking about having children together any time soon. I would hate to wait too long and not have any eggs left when I am with the right person and ready to have a baby.”
• Another reason some women pursue egg freezing is due to other medical conditions, such as cancer. Even if the cancer would not impact fertility potential, the radiation treatment likely would. At just 23 years old, Nicole was diagnosed with breast cancer and dealt with just that scenario, “I needed to undergo aggressive chemo but my doctors have given me a few weeks to get my eggs frozen before we have to start treatment. I want to freeze my eggs because I want kids in the future and am facing infertility.”
• One woman, explains why at the age of 35 she froze her eggs, “My test results showed my fertility has started to decline and on top of that, I have endometriosis which will make it even harder to get pregnant in the future.” Or Christine who had a complicated first pregnancy, “I’m not sure if I want another child, however I want to create options just in case I change my mind in the future.”

Whether it’s a decision based on current life circumstances such as a recent divorce, or health issues such as low ovarian reserve, there are many personal reasons women decide to freeze their eggs. Regardless of the reason, egg freezing does the same thing for all women: it freezes their current fertility in time, extending their reproductive options for the future. Women who freeze their eggs are not simply delaying pregnancy; they are making a conscious choice to have future reproductive success at a later, more opportune date.