New research suggests that most women are leaving it too late to freeze their eggs.
Many women wait until their late 30s before freezing their eggs but doctors are now saying that we need to consider doing it much sooner.
So when exactly should a woman freeze her eggs?
Writing in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, doctors said;
“The majority of women are taking measures to preserve their fertility too late, as a ‘last-ditch’ effort, instead of a planned and informed choice in their early to mid-30s.”
In fact, many fertility experts have said that women should start considering egg freezing between the age of 28 and 35, in order to give themselves the best odds of conception down the line.
An article written by the Telegraph in 2018 revealed that of the 1,173 egg freezing cycles that took place in the United Kingdom in 2016, only 32 per cent of cases involved women aged 35 or less.
While doctors recommend egg freezing in our late twenties, is it something that most of us will really do?
Most women assume that they will be able to conceive when they decide to have children and often don’t realise until then if something is wrong or not.
Will any 29-year-old who isn’t planning on having kids till her mid-30s have her eggs frozen or will she just take the chance that she’ll be able to conceive? Chances are the latter.
Our fertility is often times something that we take for granted and I know I didn’t have any tests to check myself or my husband’s fertility before we tried for our pregnancies.
Fertility issues are not uncommon in our 20s but it’s rarely something that couples consider.
Egg freezing is becoming increasingly more popular with women who want to temporarily put motherhood on hold and it will be interesting to see in the next few years if the age of women seeking this treatment changes.
Would you ever consider freezing your eggs?
