Freezing your eggs is a relatively new procedure, so not a great deal is known about how it affects your wellbeing. Luckily, we’ve got the info from sexual health and wellness expert Sarah Elizabeth Richards, author of new book Motherhood, Rescheduled, who has written about three “clocktickers”—women in their mid- to late thirties whose fertility is waning—who not only froze their eggs but later used them to try to have babies. Richards even started her own odyssey with the process when she was 36. She notes, ‘Even if you’ve heard about egg freezing, you probably still don’t know anyone who has done it.’ So let’s learn a little bit more from the expert, shall we?
1. Now Egg Freezing is Not Considered an Experimental Procedure, is Everyone Doing it? ‘Well, not really,’ says Richards. ‘The technology may seem more mainstream, but some fertility specialists still feel uncomfortable with it. I tell the story of Dr. Michael Tucker in my book. He just couldn’t look a 35-year-old in the eye and say, “I got your fertility, don’t worry about it.” Doctors fear that if they safeguard your eggs, you won’t do the things you need to do to find a partner or make your life ready for a child. But I actually found that egg freezing motivates women to take charge of their lives. That was one of the big surprises.’
2. How Did Egg Freezing Change Your Behaviour? Richards recalls, ‘I used to see a kid and think, I’m not going to have that. But now I feel like I’m 25 again, in that I can think about my future. Those eggs are always there for you. And even if you don’t get a baby from [the process], it’s still money well spent, because you can just relax. You no longer go on a bad date and get sad. You just think, This may not work out, but I’ll still have some fun. I got a lot more attention from men after I froze, probably because I felt better about myself, more powerful. I dressed differently, wore more dresses, prettier colours. I could pay attention to myself.’
3. What’s the Success Rate of Egg Freezing? ‘This is always a tricky question, because the chance of success depends on the quality of a woman’s eggs and the expertise of the fertility clinic,’ Richards explains. ‘Doctors have given me a wide range, one saying that a woman in her mid-thirties who froze 10 eggs had a “good chance” of bringing home a baby, and another saying 30 was a safer bet. As a rule of thumb, if a doctor thaws 10 eggs, maybe eight will survive, six will fertilize, and you’ll end up with two or three quality embryos to be transferred. The average patient using eggs frozen at 35 has about a 40% chance of becoming pregnant per cycle, which is the same as with standard IVF.’
4. How Expensive Is It? ‘It’s $8,000 to $13,000 per round,’ says Richards. ‘I became a bit obsessive and did eight rounds. I have 70 eggs. But I did a lot of sourcing—I saw a doctor in Canada, where it’s much cheaper; my second round in New York was discounted, that sort of thing—so my total cost was about $50,000. Ridiculous, I know. But my parents helped, and I justified it by thinking how much more expensive fertility treatments would be in my forties. I’m also aware there’s no money left for, say, a fancy wedding. Clinics are working on models to make it more affordable. For example, a clinic covers your costs, and you donate half the eggs from a cycle [to women who can’t produce viable eggs of their own], and the other half are frozen for you.’
