Jennette McCurdy opens up about decision to freeze her eggs despite not wanting children

Jody Coffey

“I am trying to bet on my future self wanting a thing that my current self can’t imagine wanting”

On the latest episode of her podcast, ‘Hard Feelings’, Jennette McCurdy opened up about why she is considering freezing her eggs, despite not wanting to have any children.

The iCarly star, 31, at this stage of her life does not foresee herself having kids ‘in any way shape of form’, but had opted to freeze her eggs anyway.

While this is her current mindset around children, the actress is open to having her mind changed.

“I cannot imagine a world in which someday I want kids, I am also open to my mind changing. I have changed a lot as a person in my years so far and I hope to continue changing.”

“What I don’t want to happen is for me to turn 40 and realize, ‘F**k, I want kids now,’ and I don’t have enough eggs to make it happen,” she reasoned.

When you reach your early 30s, fertility begins to decrease and it declines more rapidly after your mid-30s, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

According to 2010 research, by the time you reach 40 years old, the majority of women will have less than 10% of their pre-birth egg supply.

Women who choose to freeze their eggs before the age of 40 have a higher success rate of pregnancy if they decide to fertilise the eggs later in life.

McCurdy explained that she attended an appointment to find out more about the process and confessed that it left her ‘horrified.’

She explained what is involved when freezing your eggs.

“I’m hearing my body is going to look and feel like I’m pregnant. I am going to have difficulties and emotionality, mood swings, and hormonal charges twenty times that of a regular period,’ McCurdy recalled of the appointment.

‘No part of me feels motivated to freeze my eggs when I don’t think I want to be a mom, but what if someday I change my mind?’

“I am trying to bet on my future self wanting a thing that my current self can’t imagine wanting, versus just not doing it and risking that someday I might want it and not be able to do it then – and the regret.

“I am trying to weigh these options and it’s quite complex.’

The eggs are removed from the ovary in an IVF procedure, slow or fast frozen and then stored at below-freezing temperatures so that they can be thawed and fertilised at a later date, according to Rocky Mountain Fertility.

McCurdy admitted that she is “feeling confronted with ageing and who I am now versus who I might be someday and how much I don’t know about my future self. I was just confronted with all these life realities that, frankly, I didn’t feel prepared for – and I still don’t.”