The Ins and Outs of Egg Freezing
Jul 15, 2024
Are you considering putting off having children until later in life? Do you want to help someone struggling to conceive? Or perhaps you’re just not sure about your future family plans. All of these are good reasons to freeze your eggs.
Gen 5 Fertility Center offers an egg-freezing process that takes you from the very first stage of consideration to the last when our medical professionals retrieve and store your eggs.
Our providers — Dr. Samuel Wood, Dr. Benito Villanueva, and Dr. Martin Bastuba — understand the choice to freeze your eggs, and the process can take considerable time, effort, and thought. That’s why our clinic strives to help patients understand everything possible about the procedure before it begins.
Deciding to freeze your eggs isn’t a simple, one-and-done process. It first involves a bit of soul-searching to determine if this is the best course of action for you. Then, you can discuss it with your provider to find out if you’re a good candidate. If you are, you and your provider will create a plan for the process.
You’ll need to take medications that stimulate egg production so your provider can retrieve as many as possible during the procedure. This process goes on for about two weeks before the procedure itself. When that time comes, we sedate you so you won’t feel pain. You might have some temporary cramping afterward.
After this, we evaluate your eggs and freeze the mature ones. We give you a report letting you know how many eggs have been frozen, and we care for these eggs until the next phase of the process — whatever that may look like for you.
Freezing your eggs is a big decision and requires a lot of steps, so most people don’t approach it lightly. But there may be many reasons why you may decide to go through with the process.
For one, you may know you want to have children but aren’t sure when. Egg freezing allows you to avoid these worries and live your life as you choose.
Some people want to keep some of their eggs and donate others, while still other candidates choose to donate all their eggs. Donating eggs can be a lucrative process and can also help make someone’s dream come true.
Finally, you may freeze your eggs for a medical reason, such as a cancer diagnosis or another condition that may require egg freezing to have children down the road.
Good candidates for egg freezing are often between 25 and 40, although ages 27 to 34 are considered ideal. Generally, after age 40, egg freezing is less effective, but we may consider some patients on a case-by-case basis.
We assess your fertility health at the beginning of the process and administer medication to increase your egg production so we can retrieve as many eggs as possible.
Egg freezing doesn’t have many risks. However, because of the hormonal medications given to increase egg production, you may experience bloating, discomfort, and mood swings, which can be difficult to weather. Other risks are associated with anesthesia and the procedure but are rare.
Many factors affect the success rates of freezing your eggs, but age matters most overall. Freezing your eggs at a younger age increases the likelihood of a healthy birth.
Are you ready to freeze your eggs? Visit our San Diego, California, office or book an appointment online.