How do I determine if freezing my eggs is right for me?
Egg freezing is a very personal decision, one that can be made by you alone. There are many women who may benefit from this procedure.
At what age should I consider elective egg freezing?
- We encourage women to be proactive and not to wait too long.
- If you are a woman in her late twenties or early thirties with no partner, or are unsure of the long-term perspectives of your current relationship, you should consider freezing your eggs.
- This act is, in a way, like taking “reproductive insurance.” While pregnancy cannot be guaranteed, it is hoped that if you freeze enough eggs, it will increase your chances of conception at a later date.
- We encourage you not to wait until you get older. The benefit of egg freezing in securing your reproductive future declines with age.
How long does the process take?
The actual egg freezing cycle will take about two weeks.
Once I am ready to get pregnant, how long will the egg thawing procedure take, and what does it involve?
Preparing your uterus to accept the pregnancy takes several weeks. Once you are ready to receive the pregnancy, we will thaw out the eggs and fertilize them with your partner’s sperm. Embryos resulting from this procedure will be watched in the lab for 3-5 days. You will then have an embryo transfer, which takes a few minutes. Excess embryos will be frozen for your future use.
How long can my eggs remain frozen?
Your eggs are frozen in time. Therefore, we assume they will have the same viability several years after they were frozen, as they’d have had with an immediate thaw.
- We have learned from egg donation that the uterus is capable of carrying a pregnancy long after the ovary runs out of eggs. However, our program has set the age of 50 as the maximum age to get an embryo transfer from a frozen-thawed egg.
How long after my cancer treatment must I wait before implantation?
This will be determined by your oncologist and will depend on the staging of your cancer and your response to treatment.
Will the fertility drugs affect my cancer?
The treatment is short and so far no negative impact has been observed. Since this is a relatively new area, we continue to update our protocols as new information becomes available.
What is the cost of the procedure?
Costs vary significantly and may depend on insurance coverage. For more information please call the office to speak with one of our financial counselors at 516-562-1702.
What are my options if I have unused eggs?
We recommend that you don’t rush into making a hasty decision regarding your frozen eggs.
Once you are a hundred percent sure that you no longer have any use for the eggs, you may sign a form that allows the lab to discard them. Alternatively, there may be egg donation options available at that time that we can discuss with you.
How can I protect my children if I have cancer genes?
If you have a cancer gene (such as BRCA), your children are at an increased risk to develop the same or related cancer. Fortunately, we can help to significantly decrease that risk using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). Through PGD we can detect the cancer gene in your embryos and implant only healthy embryos.
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