Is egg freezing a ‘false promise’?

By Sophie Sulehria

This month, Conservative MP Miriam Cates raised concerns that women are being exploited by large corporations who offer them money to freeze their eggs. This is to put off having children to a later age, presumably to concentrate on their careers should they want to. 

The MP, herself a mother-of-three, said she was concerned that women would be “falsely reassured” into deciding to delay pregnancy until later life. Her main concerns were “if you freeze your eggs after the age of 35 or so, they are not good quality enough to likely result in a later pregnancy”.

But just how true is this?  Well, if there’s one thing we are aiming for here at The Fertility Show, it’s to help you gain an understanding about your future fertility.  With this in mind, it’s unsurprising there’s been a significant interest in egg freezing over the last few years.

BUT WHY?

Well, for a start, women are born with a finite number of eggs. Indeed they are produced when they themselves are embryos. Over time, these eggs are used up, and by the age of 35, the quantity and quality of the remaining eggs typically decline, making it harder to conceive naturally. This is one of the main draws for egg freezing; a solution to this biological constraint. By freezing eggs at a younger age, women can preserve their fertility for future use - be that with a partner or as a solo parent. But yes, it’s true, the optimal age for egg freezing is under 35. This is due to the higher quality and fertility potential of the eggs - the younger the woman, the younger the eggs.

However, MP Miriam Cates’ main concern is because of this age restraint; “Unfortunately, if you freeze your eggs after the age of 35 or so, they are not good quality enough to likely result in a later pregnancy, and I think it is quite unethical for commercial companies to be targeting women.”

IS THIS TRUE?

Miriam is right in one thing - the success rates using frozen eggs are heavily dependent on the age at which the eggs were frozen. Under the age of 35, each egg usually has around a 6% chance of resulting in a baby. So the more eggs you freeze, the more chances you have. Then as the age increases, the success rate per egg decreases, necessitating the freezing of more eggs to achieve the same probability of success. 

However, in my opinion, if done in time, egg freezing is a wonderful way to freeze the aging process… and I wish I’d done it myself. Yes, in an ideal world, people would live the life they aimed to lead before having their children, then naturally they’d conceive within a few months of trying, and then go on to have their family. But we aren’t living in an ideal world. The truth is that there are a vast number of reasons why people are having their children later in life.  Some want to travel / save money / focus on their careers for a time.  Some don’t meet their respective life partners until much later on in life.  Some never meet that life partner and want the option to go it alone.  Some are in same sex relationships and need to work out their next steps to having their family.  I personally had such debilitating endometriosis that by the time it came to having children, I couldn’t.  I wish to goodness I had half an idea about my own female health, endometriosis, and the options available to me ten years ago. 

There will be a school of thought that “you can’t always have everything” we would like to think that people should also have choices, and this outdated opinion is almost deleting the idea that people shouldn’t even be given the chance to try. In a bid to help women achieve balance, and dare we say it, equality.

Egg freezing is in fact a wonderful option, if you need an option in this area - especially among women who want to delay starting their families until they are at a point in their life when they feel ready. With advancements in reproductive technology, egg freezing has become a viable choice for many. 

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT EGG FREEZING?

We urge you to come to The Fertility Show, where we are running a specific seminar about fertility preservation, which will cover all you need to know about egg freezing. Get your tickets HERE now for 25% off all tickets and seminars.