Freezing eggs on the rise in the US

We talked about using an egg donor for secondary infertility. But what if you can be your own egg donor? This concept is becoming a reality, as Reuters says half of all US fertility clinics are now freezing eggs for them to be used at some point in the future. Freezing eggs for later use certainly makes sense. Infertility is an increasing problem, and the age of first time moms is pushed back all the time. If you are in your twenties and thirties, and know you want to be a mother later on, freezing your eggs sounds like a great insurance policy. Egg freezing used to be a rather rare procedure, because the success rates were said to be so low that there was hardly any point in doing it.

The procedure was expensive, and not very effective. But now that different techniques for freezing and storing eggs have been developed, and the cost has been reduced gradually, more women are making use of this possibility. Did you know that egg freezing has been practiced for nearly 20 years already? But as technology is advancing, there are fewer risks associated with this procedure and higher chances that frozen eggs will eventually turn into healthy babies.

A new study published in the Fertility and Sterility journal shows that the procedure using frozen eggs is successful 39 percent of the case. Freezing your eggs will set you back $10,000 to 12,000, with additional costs for storage and IVF when you decide to use them. Women needing chemotherapy for cancer might especially benefit from egg freezing, and could even have part of the cost reimbursed by instance companies. What do you think? Would you freeze your eggs? In what circumstances might you consider freezing your eggs, and what do you think about the cost involved?