Sure, women like Olivia Munn, Maria Menounos and Whitney Cummings are all gorgeous celebrities with successful careers, but here’s something else these ladies have in common: They all elected to freeze their eggs while in their 30s.
And they’re not alone: according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the number of women opting to freeze their eggs rose from 475 in 2009 to almost 7,300 in 2016.
Fast forward to 2019 and those numbers continue to rise, said Dr. Natalie A. Cekleniak, a reproductive endocrinologist with the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science (IRMS), a practice dedicated to providing state-of-the-art fertility treatment to women at its seven locations throughout New Jersey.
“I think the word is spreading,” said Dr. Cekleniak, who serves as IRMS’s practice director and was voted a Castle Connolly Top Doctor by her peers. “More people are doing it and they’re telling their friends about it.”
While starting a family might be a part of a woman’s life plan, it might not be a priority during her most fertile years (between the ages of 21-34) — maybe because of work, education or relationships. Egg freezing allows women to decide when it’s time to start a family, regardless of their biological clock.
Even though egg freezing — or cryopreservation — has been advertised for years, it’s only been within the last decade that technology has allowed the freezing protocol to freeze eggs well, Dr. Cekleniak said. IRMS, which offers a range of services — from in vitro fertilization to egg and sperm donation to psychological support — has been offering egg freezing for about five years. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for,” she said.
Who Makes a Good Candidate for Egg Freezing?
Dr. Cekleniak said the criteria for being a good candidate to freeze your eggs has nothing to do with whether or not you’ve been on TV, and has a lot more to do with your age. Ideally, a woman who’s considering freezing her eggs is:
- age 30 or older
- not about to start actively trying to get pregnant on her own
- wants the best chance at future fertility
One of Dr. Cekleniak’s favorite stories was of a patient who came in at 41 to freeze her eggs as she’d yet to find the right partner, but knew she wanted to have a biological child some day. The patient returned at 45, right after getting married, and ended up with two healthy embryos — a boy and a girl. “She just delivered the girl and I’m sure she’s going to come back and have her second child with her eggs, which she only made possible by knowing to come in at 41.”
Freezing Your Eggs: How it Works
The egg freezing process is a relatively safe and easy process, said Dr. Cekleniak, not to mention quick — about a week and a half from the start of medication to the non-surgical process that harvests the eggs.
The whole process can be broken down into four steps:
- Initial exam: The first step is getting a full evaluation of the reproductive system with an internal exam, ultrasound and blood work, which includes genetic testing.
- Medication begins: Once the doctor gives the green light, a patient begins daily subcutaneous injections of medicine that stimulates the ovaries and egg production. “It’s more of what you make naturally to make your ovaries produce more eggs,” Dr. Cekleniak said.
- Daily evaluation: Over the course of about nine days, the patient visits the office for blood work and ultrasound to monitor her progress. A little bloating and tenderness toward the end of the process are the only negative side effects to the medication, Dr. Cekleniak added.
- Egg harvesting: Once triggered for ovulation, the eggs are ready to be retrieved through a transvaginal aspiration, which requires light sedation. After a two-hour recovery period, the patient goes home and the eggs are frozen and ready for fertilization.
The Cost to Freeze Eggs
While Fortune 100 companies such as Apple and Facebook have begun to cover the cost of egg freezing for employees, most insurance companies are not as forward thinking. “It can be expensive and not doable for everyone,” said Dr. Cekleniak, who added that many of her patients who don’t have insurance that pays for the procedure decide to budget for it and save up for a year to get it done.
And while not every patient ends up using the banked eggs — whether they end up changing their minds or have a baby on their own — when they do need the eggs they are glad that they went through the process. “Those patients say, ‘This is the best money I ever spent,’ ” Dr. Cekleniak said.
If you are considering egg freezing or would like more information, contact IRMS at (973) 548-9900.
