How Many Eggs Do I Need to Freeze?

This is possibly one of the most common questions that our fertility clinic faces, along with few others. At what age should I freeze my eggs? How to determine egg quality? And how many eggs should you retrieve to ensure success? There’s a good reason behind these questions – the number of eggs you decide to freeze along with your age will impact the chances of success with eggs freezing.

You cannot answer the question without proper understanding of the egg freezing process. There’s kind of an inverse pyramid at play when it comes to any fertility treatment. It is likely that 90% of the eggs that you freeze will survive the thawing process when using vitrification. Of those that survive, a certain number will fertilize. That number varies based on your age at the time you freeze your eggs. There’s another big X factor in play here. It’s the quality of sperm your using to fertilize your eggs. Of the eggs that do fertilize, a certain number of eggs will develop into healthy blastocysts.

Again, the number varies depending primarily on the age when you’re your eggs were frozen. Age will also determine whether the blastocysts will be genetically normal or not. Finally, we will only implant genetically healthy embryos into the uterus.

Long story short: one egg does not equal one pregnancy. That’s because even a healthy and fertile couple has about 20 – 25% chance of getting pregnant each month. So how many eggs should you freeze to have a successful pregnancy? That depends on a few factors, including your age and quality of eggs. Let’s explore:

Your Current Age at Egg Freezing

Age is the first and most important factor to be considered when determining the number of eggs you should freeze. 

That’s because, as your age increases, the DNA in your eggs naturally decreases. This is kind of a decline in egg quality. Abnormal DNA may mean that your eggs probably won’t fertilize, but if they do, they are likely to result in a miscarriage or genetic anomalies. As your age increases, a larger percentage of eggs become genetically abnormal. This means, to get the same level of confidence that at least few of the eggs you freeze will work, doctors recommend that older women should freeze significantly more eggs than younger women.

Let’s look at a recent study on eggs freezing process success rates to understand this question better. This study was published in Human Reproduction last year and was based on the data of 520 healthy and fertile women undergoing eggs freezing treatment.

From this study, it was derived that a woman who is under the age of 35 has about an 85% chance of having a baby with 15 frozen eggs. If a woman is over the age of 38, then the same number of eggs (15) would represent only a 60% chance of having a baby. For a 38-year-old woman to have the same chance, she would need to freeze 30 or more eggs.

So, you need to think about your age and the chances of success with which you are comfortable. Say, for example, is 60% good enough for you? Or do you need an 85% success rate to feel confident in your frozen eggs?

Number of Eggs to Freeze in Each Cycle

Not only the quality of the eggs declines with age, but the number of eggs decreases as well (the number of eggs you have in your “reserves).    Younger women with a large reserve are more likely to produce a larger number of quality eggs in each cycle, and therefore they reach their goal more quickly, maybe even in just one cycle. Older women who have a significantly lower egg count or women who have low egg count because of a medical condition, are less likely to reach their required goal in just one cycle. They often need multiple cycles to freeze enough eggs for a good chance at a baby later. This is the primary reason we urge women to consider eggs freezing process in their thirties.

At Coastal Fertility Clinic, we use ovarian reserve testing to make a confident projection about how many eggs you might make per cycle. Tests may include anti-Mullerian hormone blood tests and antral follicle count. Our fertility assessment program offers these tests as a part of it.

Your Family Goals

Family goals also come into consideration when you try to find an answer to this question. Do you want three kids or just one? Are you not even sure that you want kids someday, but want to preserve your fertility just in case? Getting answers to these will change what success looks like for you and it will also significantly change the recommendation of how many eggs should you freeze with a fertility clinic for success. So, if you want a bigger family, then you’ll need a bigger “bank” of eggs to work with.

Your Budget (Money Cost and Time) for Egg Freezing

When it comes to the number of eggs you want to freeze, finances are at the forefront of the conversation for almost every woman. The truth is, if cost wasn’t an issue then every woman may want to freeze more than enough eggs. So, the number of eggs you can freeze is limited by the budget that you can devote to the egg freezing process.

Eggs freezing process is an investment for most women. Understanding how many cycles you can afford is paramount to answering, “How many eggs should I freeze?”

We know it can be difficult to plan all this in advance. That’s why our doctors, along with our whole support team, are here to help. Visit Coastal Fertility Medical Center (Coastal Fertility Clinic Irvine) at www.coastalfertility.com or call us at 949-726-0600 to learn more about egg freezing.