+ Can I still get pregnant naturally after egg freezing?

Yes! The majority of women who freeze their eggs still have a Plan A of getting pregnant naturally. While there are the risk of very rare side effects that could affect your future fertility, these are extremely uncommon, and women who have frozen their eggs otherwise have no added issues getting pregnant naturally down the road. Most women simply keep their eggs frozen as a backup plan, in case they aren’t able to get pregnant the old-fashioned way when they try. However, there are some advantages to using your frozen eggs to create a child too - like being able to genetically test each embryo (potential baby) before it goes into your body at the start of pregnancy. We can actually prevent a number of genetic diseases by performing these tests. (Pretty cool, right?)

+ Does freezing my eggs decrease the number I'll have left?

The short answer is no. In a regular cycle, your body matures one egg to ovulate and loses approximately 100 eggs that are not chosen to mature. When you freeze your eggs, your body will mature many of these eggs that would have never had a chance to mature in a regular cycle, so these eggs do not get “lost.” You can think of a cycle of egg freezing as simply rescuing many of those 100 eggs - and saving them for later.

+ How long would it take to freeze my eggs?

The entire procedure (daily hormone injections and one egg retrieval procedure at the end) ranges from 10-14 days, depending on how your body responds to the hormone medications.

Many women continue on their normal daily routines during most of this process, but there are certain things to plan for during those two weeks:

• lifestyle restrictions (such as limitations on alcohol and rigorous physical activity)
• time constraints (an appointment at the clinic approximately every other day, injecting yourself at a specific time each day, and taking a day off for your retrieval procedure)
• potential side effects (similar to what you usually feel on your period, but potentially more severe)

+ I heard egg freezing is expensive. How much does it actually cost?

The average cost of freezing your eggs is $12,577 per cycle, but it can cost half, or double, that amount. Our Compare Clinics Tool lists pricing specifics for the egg freezing clinics in your city to help you plan and pick the clinic that is best for you. Go to the Compare Clinics Tool -->

+ How long has egg freezing existed?

In 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine reclassified the process of freezing egg cells for future use (oocyte cryopreservation) and no longer referred to the procedure "experimental.” However, women have gone through the procedure of having their eggs retrieved and frozen for decades as the first step of IVF. (The first baby from IVF was born in 1978!)

+ How long will my frozen eggs last? Will they ever go “bad”?

We haven’t seen any limitations on the amount of time you can keep your eggs frozen. A woman just had a healthy baby from an egg frozen for 14 years, and another woman just had a healthy baby from an embryo (egg and sperm combined) that had been frozen for 24 years!