True stories of the egg freeze

[Londong]

Dear ladies. I had egg freeze when i was 38 (currently 42). 3 rounds. 21 eggs frozen in total. Recently I did egg fertilization (thawing and ICSI) in 2 rounds. Only 5 eggs managed to fertilize. Only 1 got to the stage of the blastocyst day 5. And unfortunately stopped growing further. When i did egg feeze dr assured me that i would have a child. I was sure that my eggs would produce pregnancy. Now I start to think that egg freeze its just a myth. Are there any other ladies here who have similar story? Or maybe more positive experience? I am trying currently find out from the clinic in London that I did the procedures what their numbers are in terms of egg freeze and how many ladies went back to fertilize their eggs and how many were successful. Till now I didn't get the answer.

It's a very unfortunate drop off rate but as you were 38 when you froze your eggs, probably not completely out of the ordinary. I find it hard to believe anyone would have promised you you would have a baby - I can't see any fertility doctor saying that to be honest and if they did I would have significant reservations about their practice! Definitely worth going back to your clinic and having a discussion re what has happened and where you go from here. Yes egg freezing is very effective for lots of people, but obviously there are so many variables, with egg and sperm quality being two big ones you can't control. Good luck.

Hi OP, I'm sorry about your unsuccessful situation.

I do agree with PP that it's strange if they guaranteed you a baby. Noone said anything like that when I started freezing my eggs and the clinics published data their egg freezing stats.

I remember the stats when I was looking at age 34, that you needed 7 eggs frozen to have at least a 50% chance of having a baby. I've just had a google and this is the table I saw

fertilityspace.io/blog/this-is-how-many-eggs-you-should-freeze-based-on-your-age

From that, at age 38, they suggest you should freeze 16 eggs to have a 70% chance of having a baby. There are probably no figures possible which could ever give you a 100% chance of having a baby, sadly, too many variables. And the older you are, the less good the eggs are.

I've managed to freeze 6 eggs (severely diminished ovarian reserve) at 35 and I've got one more egg freezing cycle left now I've just turned 36. Expecting maybe 1 or 2 eggs best case scenario. I don't feel particularly reassured by this though - perhaps I would if I had double this. But it's like a plan C, I guess, after exhausting all natural routes and if I still can't get pregnant naturally in future, or with IVF, then at least I have those few eggs to give a go with. There are no guarantees in life. I will definitely come back to report if/when I do use my eggs though..

Dear Rosiestraws,
They showed me these statistics too. However i noticed no clinic is showing how many women froze their eggs with them and how many really managed to fertilize them afterwards. As many women do not go back for long time or never. I am looking for the ladies who tried to fertilize their frozen eggs as until now I only came out to few stories that unfortunately the frozen eggs didnt create successful pregnancies.
Also % do not say much. As they do not say the number of their control group. It is difference if they only have experience with 15 women opposite to 500 lets say.

Dear MGee,
She told me that when I asked her if I should do the 4th round of egg collection to have more eggs in future.

Our of interest, how many eggs thawed and were available to fertilise from the 21 you had frozen? I suppose that's the main statistic that's useful to know.. as all you're doing when freezing eggs, is giving yourself those eggs to use in future. I think my clinics thaw rate was something like 90% or so, so I would hope that of my 6 eggs, I'll hopefully have 5 that thaw successfully. But then you're on your own with what happens after that.

Sorry it hasn't worked out.

I think the problem with egg freezing it that it's all still fairly new.. I guess over the next 5 years or so there'll be better statistics out there to compare all these different groups. It's only been a thing for social reasons over the last 5 years or so I'd say (although I'm sure celebs in USA for example have been freezing their eggs for years! Hillary Swank, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey..! All these women who've had children late in life, clearly aren't using their "current age" eggs)

to Rosiestraws - i thawed them in 2 rounds. 1st 15 eggs, only 6 were unfrozen properly and managed to be fertilized, out of them 3 or 4 fertilized, and only 1 lasted to day 5 and stopped growing so they couldnt even send it for PGT. 2nd round 6 eggs thawed, 2 were fertilized but didnt split, they kept them in embroyscop until day 6 but they didnt split beyond 2-3 cells.
If i had the knowledge i have now i would try to create embryo with donor sperm (i was single at the point of doing egg freeze) at least with half of the eggs. I wish the clinic sat me properly and explained how difficult the unfreezing of the eggs is how little chance of the successful embryo is achievable, so at least at the age of 38 i would have the full picture. so maybe i could do more egg collection rounds, try to improve my egg quality ect... i just was not looking into the subject as i was sure that those eggs would create at least embryos for pregnancy.
I suggest all laddies to do research...
the clinic also were telling me that the success of thawing eggs is 80%. But they do not tell you what age are the eggs (its big difference when is 18 and above 30) and they do not tell you how many eggs thawed really fertilize, they put things to one general pot and give statistics...they should really start showing numbers ...we women are countable, no need to give personal information, but at least of heads that are doing it and than the results.

Well, to be fair...you were already 38. Hardly a spring chicken in terms of egg quality. Those numbers don't seem too unusual.
We started with IVF when I was the same age. I had three rounds. First, I had 8 eggs collected, of which 6 fertilised. None developed to blastocyst stage but I got a morula back on day 5. Second round, I had 10 eggs collected, 9 fertilised, again didn't develop beyond morula. Third round, 9 eggs collected, 7 fertilised, two morulas on day 5. We then switched to egg donation. Our donor was 26. They collected 10 eggs, 8 fertilised...3 developed to blastocyst stage on day 5. I've had those three back in two separate rounds. No pregnancy, yet.
It's a statistical gamble. There's no certainty that you get a baby in the end.

To Minimochi. Thank you for sharing your story.
Did you have your eggs frozen first or did you do fertilization from the fresh collection. In my case I had eggs collected to be frozen.

My last one was a frozen embryo transfer. They had frozen two embryos at blastocyst stage and then thawed and transferred them about 2 months later.

I know it's not the same but what I was trying to point out is that at that age, you are likely to "lose" quite a few of your eggs, frozen or not. None of the eggs/embryos from my first three cycles made it. They fertilised generally fine but then didn't develop. I would assume the outcomes would have been similar had we frozen them first. It doesn't improve the quality.

I'm wishing you good luck, though. Fingers crossed that you'll get there eventually.

My friend froze 11 eggs aged 35 . At 39 she thawed them and got 1 blastocyst. She now has a beautiful 6 month old baby boy.

I am now 39, when I was 34 froze 5 eggs which I have not yet used. A few months ago after my 39th birthday decided to do ivf with my fresh eggs, amh hadnt changed since 34. I got 5 eggs again, 4 fertilised , 4 blastocysts. But they discarded 3 as said quality didnt look great and froze 1 top quality embroyo, as they call it. 5aa i think.

Do you happen to know if she thawed all of her eggs/how many fertilised/survived etc?

As an aside, I've just remembered that Nicola Adams' baby boy is from her frozen eggs from when she was 30 (and then her wife carried the baby). I think it was the 3rd time they tried though...I think one miscarriage and one issue with the eggs previously..

Yes she thawed all 11. I think 9 fertilised and then only 1 blastocyst. She tried fresh at 38 also but made no blasts, so maybe an egg quality issue.

@Londong Sorry to hear your predicament. Very dissapointing. Will you consider going again with a fresh round.

To Bubblesdublin - thank you. Yes I want to try with fresh cycle. After what happened to me I realized that I should have been trying to fertilize eggs. This is the only way to check their quality. And it is higher chance to become pregnant. I hesitated to do it as I was single. Not only I didnt know how little chance is for the frozen egg to reach the blastocyst level, also i would have been probably scared to use donor sperm (thinking that future partner would not accept the baby or me ect. - i do not think that anymore, as I have been suggested donor egg - so in anyway there is a donor either on sperm side or egg side) I do not know whos sperm you fertilized your eggs with. But in my opinion you did the right thing trying with fresh cycle to fertilize and freeze embryo. I wish I did the same! (I did 3 rounds of egg freeze - I wish someone explained to me properly how fragile the 1 cell eggs are, at least with one cycle) I wish you luck!

Thanks @Londong . I fertilised eggs with donor sperm. I am glad to have done also but still not a guarantee as only 1 embroyo but still have the eggs from 34 also I guess. So who knows what will happen for me. Best of luck with your fresh round, my friend did her first fresh at 42 and was successful, delivered baby boy at 43.5.

Thank you for the kind words. Do you know what clinic your friend used?

@Londong I believe it was the beacon clinic in Dublin.

ah ok, thank you

@Londong No worries. Have you evet tried to concieve naturally, perhaps no harm while you wait for next ivf cycle.

hi Bubblesdublin, i have tried but i am post laparoscopy operation after my cyst burst, and also hydrosalpix on other tube...so i m difficult case...

@Londong Oh I see yes, hopefully you will make good recovery shortly. Wish you all the best for the new year.