Ideal moment for egg vitrification

Hello, I was thinking of vitrifying my eggs because I’ve made up my min and I definitely want to become a mother, but not now. I’m 26… Don’t know if this has any influence, but maybe the longer they are frozen, the poorer their quality will be? As I’m still young, do you think it is better if I freeze them so that they are stored during a shorter period of time? Don’t know what to do… I’m a mess right now.

Dear Katrina26,

Approximately from age 35 onwards, a woman’s ovarian reserve starts diminishing, especially from age 40 onwards. This, at the same time, increases the likelihood that genetic and fetal abnormalities appear.

The ideal moment to preserve your fertility is between 18 and 32-33 years old more or less. In your case, as you are 26, you are within that age range, so it is the ideal moment if you feel you’re ready to do it. The longer you wait, the more risky it becomes, as you may obtain a lower amount of eggs, and their quality may be poorer due to the reasons mentioned above.

The method used to preserve a woman’s fertility is egg vitrification. To that end, the patient has to undergo ovarian stimulation in the first place, so that her ovary produces multiple eggs. The next step is egg retrieval by means of follicular puncture, which is a surgical procedure that aims to retrieve your eggs. Finally, the eggs retrieved will be cryopreserved through vitrification.

Frozen eggs can be stored for an indefinite period of time, and that’s is why egg cryopreservation allows a woman to preserve her fertility until she finds it is the good moment to become pregnant. In that very moment, the frozen eggs will be defrosted and fertilized with your husband’s or donated sperm. The embryos created will be transferred to your uterus, waiting for pregnancy to take place.

I hope I have been able to help,

Regards