One year ago this week the American Society for Reproductive Medicine lifted the experimental label from human egg freezing. As pioneers of vitrification, the laboratory technique that led to dramatic improvements in egg freezing success, we applauded this move.
Since this time, it’s been hard to miss a popular press article about the potential benefits of egg freezing. Why so much hype? Because egg freezing is a game changer. For the first time ever, we can interrupt the biological certainty of egg depletion with aging.
The ovary is endowed with its lifetime supply of eggs before birth. Eggs never replicate or regenerate; they are only lost, at first slowly but then later in life at an accelerated pace. By the time a woman reaches her mid 40’s, there is only a relative handful of poor quality eggs remaining.
Now, women can literally stop the biological clock. By removing eggs from the ovary and freezing them, they are suspended in time. For example, a 40 year old woman using her own eggs that were frozen 10 years prior, now has the fertility potential of a 30 year old. As egg supply and quality are strongly correlated with age, the earlier in life that eggs are frozen, the better.
This month we are excited to announce the launch of our egg bank program (mfceggbank.com) which provides services for frozen donor eggs and fertility preservation for women wishing to extend their reproductive lifespan. For women interested in donor eggs, egg freezing offers a accelerated way to complete a donor egg cycle at a dramatically reduced cost. For women postponing childbearing, egg freezing offers potential peace of mind.