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Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should, Too)

This weekend’s issue of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent essay by Sarah Elizabeth Richards on why she froze her eggs. Her story is probably the story of hundreds and thousands of women who find themselves in a similar life situation.

Egg freezing is now an option being routinely offered to patients at InVia Fertility Specialists. We have been using the Cryo-Tech technique involving vitrification with good success. Recently, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine has stated that egg freezing should no longer be considered experimental.

Ms. Richards writes how between the ages of 36 and 38 she froze 70 eggs in the hope that they would help her have a family in her mid-40s. Although the cost was significant, she says that it was the best investment she ever made.

Egg freezing stopped the sadness that she was feeling at losing her chance to have the child she had dreamed about her entire life. She decided to freeze on the afternoon of her 36th birthday, when she realized that even if the man she was dating at the time agreed to start a family, she was cutting it close to have one baby, let alone a second. Several months later, after injecting herself for nearly two weeks with hormone shots, she was in surgery at a Manhattan fertility clinic as her doctor pierced her ovaries, suctioned out nine eggs and handed them to the embryologist to freeze until she was ready to use them. As soon as she woke up in the recovery room, she no longer felt as though she were watching her window to have a baby close by the month. Her future seemed full of possibility again. She underwent several more such cycles.

The egg freezing process had a significant positive influence on her psyche. She felt it was a most powerful “gender equalizer” – the ability to control when women have children. Women could freeze their eggs and pursue their career paths and postpone childbearing to a time when they are ready. Another advantage of the process is that by freezing eggs you reduce the risk of birth defects by using younger eggs.

Celebrities are getting in on the act. Last month, "Modern Family" television actress Sofia Vergara, 40, announced she had frozen her eggs. In the ultimate stamp of approval, Kim Kardashian—then 31 and not yet pregnant with Kanye West's baby—wondered aloud last year on her reality show whether she should freeze.

Many women say that egg freezing motivated them to take charge of their lives. They relaxed. They dated, married and thawed. They became ready to be mothers.

When a woman freezes her eggs, two things happen: She comes to terms with the fact that her fertility is fading, and she invests significant time, energy and money in protecting that asset by seeking medical help. The combination puts the issue front and center and makes you commit to your goals.

The act of egg freezing also has the effect of making women feel more in control of their dating lives. Some women would pursue a relationship aggressively and tell dates they were looking to settle down and have children. Others would actually slow down and focus on self-improvement. The result was a satisfying single life and learning to be content without a partner. This would make them ready to welcome the “right” one.

Ms. Richards found that egg freezing gave her the confidence to go back on Match.com at nearly 40 and proudly tell men "I can have kids whenever I want. It feels so nice not to have to rush relationships." She eventually did meet Mr. Right and plans on using the frozen eggs if she does not conceive on her own within the next year or so.

The essay ends with a discussion of two other possibilities. One, if the frozen eggs do not work, there is the option of purchasing eggs from “egg banks” that are now in business.

The other possibility is for young women to consider pro-actively freezing their eggs. In the future, a woman who registers for law or medical school—and knows ahead of time that she will spend her prime baby-making years in the trenches—would ask for loans for tuition and egg freezing at the same time. Or she might ask a boyfriend who wants to wait a few years to start a family to pony up for the procedure. In either scenario, she would assume control of her fertility from the outset, rather than freeze her eggs as a frenzied reaction to her life's not having unfolded the way she imagined.

Ms. Richards is the author of "Motherhood Rescheduled: The New Frontier of Egg Freezing and the Women Who Tried It," to be published by Simon and Schuster on May 7.

Infertility Infertility treatment IVF InVia Fertility Specialists Egg freezing Embryology

Dr. Vishvanath Karande

Dr. Vishvanath Karande

Dr. Karande is Board Certified in the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as the subspecialty of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

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