Egg freezing at 25?

[Lilly1102]

Hello! Has anyone had any personal experience of egg freezing / knows more about it? Is it worth it financially?

I am 25 (my partner being 1 yr younger than me). And in my IDEAL world I would love to be married and have one baby before I’m 30. However, with how everything is so expensive these days I actually think realistically I’ll be married at 30 and have a baby at 32/33.

I have a stable job that I will hopefully stay at for the next 7 years and my partner had a stable job but he’s finally going to train to be a pilot which could take anything from 2-5 years (commercial one!). I’m so happy for him because he’s taken so long to save!

He’s got a decent amount of hours already but granted it’s expensive so he’ll have to cut back to a part time job which means we won’t have an income like we do now. I’m so happy he’s finally committed to pilot training but I have explained I’m slightly worried about the interim because he’s a man so doesn’t have a fertile body clock! So the next 4/5 years I suppose we can’t even consider a wedding!

part of me thinks it’s a temporary set back (I’ve explained my concerns) because I always dreamt of being married with kids by 30, and owning a house etc.

The latter is less of an issue as I do know that my parents have said when they downsize they will give me some money for a deposit which is so sweet and I’ve got no question that if a pregnancy ever occurred, they would honour that.

anyway - with all plans being pushed back by a couple of years, I don’t want to get to 32 and be in fertile! Is it worth freezing eggs?? Is there any point? Is it a waste of money if it doesn’t work?

i hope I don’t sound selfish! I’m very supportive of my boyfriend, which is why I’m thinking of alternatives to preserve fertility ie egg freezing so the ‘timeline’ is less of an issue and I can fully not worry about timelines.

Do it! I had a failed marriage in my thirties and suffered sub fertility and am now going for donor eggs in my forties. If I had known what I know now I would have frozen my eggs. Even better if you're under 30.

I understand future planning and, if you can afford it, then why not.
But just as something to bear in mind, the average age of first time mothers in the UK is now 30 so there are as many 25 years olds starting a family as there are 35 year olds.
What makes you think you would be infertile at 32/33?

I had my first at 37, currently pregnant with my second at 41 (both conceived naturally with no issues). I'm the older end of the scale and not recommending that for you personally but just wanted to let you know that you don't suddenly hit 30 and become infertile.

Could you do some tests to give you an idea of ovarian reserve etc? Go in with a bit more info? Fwiw I think it's a brilliant idea if you can afford it, and a good age to do it for high quality eggs

You can get married just at a registry office, no need for a massive wedding. And then in a few years have a big celebration to celebrate your marriage, passing of pilots licence, and maybe even your new family.

You don't need to freeze your eggs. 32 is fine to conceive a baby naturally. I had my first at 32 and was one of the youngest school mums.

Do you have any reason to think you'd be infertile by 32? It's a very normal age to get pregnant... in fact I don't know anyone who intentionally had kids under 30. Five of my closest friends got married age 32 (it was a busy summer) and then had babies 1-3 years later.

Of course you can freeze your eggs if you want to, but then you have to go through IVF to have them inserted whereas you could most likely conceive normally in your early 30s.

I’ve always had fertility anxiety (I was adopted) and I know how infertility / miscarriages really affected my Mum. To this day, she tells me sometimes she feels like an inferior mum just because she didn’t give birth to me even though she is the BEST mother in my eyes.

i had an ultrasound early this year because I had random twinges in the pelvic area (petrified it was PID) and the scan showed everything was normal but that It looked like I had a lower egg reserve- I then had an AMH test which came back as being within the normal range for my age which was reassuring.

but I still get anxious about it! Good point re IVF, the egg freezing isn’t too expensive but I know IVF is incredibly expensive!

I really apologise if I sound high maintenance (and I truly wish I could be happy in a registry office) but getting married in a registry office is really my biggest nightmare! But I will say, that I guess I can still marry in a beautiful church and then have the ‘wedding breakfast’ etc and party at a later date!

ive just always dreamed of a fairytale wedding since I was little! Which I know is shocking to some people because rightly so, they think spending SO much money on a wedding is ludicrous

I'm no medic but I'd have thought the odds of a natural successful pregnancy at 30-35 are higher than IVF with defrosted eggs.
Nearly everyone I know has successfully conceived at that age. Granted not always immediately once they start trying, but most within a few months to a year.

Yes i had an AMH test which was reassuring although my progesterone hormone wasn’t showing at the right level but it could just be I did the test at the wrong time of the month!! Granted I have general anxiety, health anxiety so I’m probably worrying unnecessarily but I’ve always wanted babies

@Lilly1102 Fair enough then, in that case it sounds sensible as a back-up plan to set your mind at ease. I would try to conceive naturally first though, when you get there.

It doesn't really sound like you don't have any reason to be anxious though - your mum obviously struggled and that is very sad, but most likely your biological mum didn't. I'm sorry that your mum's feelings have affected you so much.

I have to say, I think if you really want babies and to be a mum, spending all your money (and fertile years) on a 'fairytale wedding' is a bit silly. It's one day, you get some nice photos and memories, but you have a lifetime with your children. If that's what you really, really want, get on with it.

Delaying everything is fine, sounds sensible especially if you work on advancing your career and earnings too. But realistically, you are very young. You might not even still be together in 7 years.

I would recommend freezing their eggs to anyone while they are young if they want to have babies in the future. It might never needed, but it could help. I think you can also donate eggs for compensation, so you might obtain some extra funds for the egg freezing that way...

I think do it. I know people that have done ivf in mid thirties and wish they had younger eggs to use. You can’t go back in time but you can future proof or attempt to

You never know though. I was diagnosed with low ovarian reserve at 31, wish I’d frozen eggs at 25!

It can't hurt to do some proper research into it if it's what you want, I imagine the hormones, appointments and cost don't make it an easy process though and IVF is worse in all aspects (intrusive and expensive). Have you don't much research into the process so far and how it would work for you right now?

If you're going to do it it's better to do it while you're younger! It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

I guess it’s hard to know the future. I conceived at 30 (miscarriage), 31 (my son) and 33 (now). All naturally within the first three cycles. I did track ovulation for the best chance.

Most of my friends have conceived between 30-35 naturally though, with an exception of one friend with known fertility issues- even they conceived naturally after four years but it took a lot of effort.

I suppose if you have the money for it you could do it. Then try to conceive naturally later on and see what happens, knowing you have the backup option?

Success rates can actually be quite low using frozen eggs V a fresh IVF cycle.

In the nicest possible way, intending to plan a lavish wedding in the same post as you mentioning money worries is a bit silly. It sounds like your actual worst nightmare would be not having your own children. A marriage could go tits-up at any point but you’d always have your children. By all means funnel money into both if you can afford it but to me it’s the obvious compromise.

On a more companionate note, I’d maybe have a chat with someone about your fertility anxieties. It’s a normal thing to worry about to some extent but your womb won’t shut down on your 30th birthday!

It's a great age to freeze eggs if you are going to. You don't need to use them if you end up being fertile when you are ready but they would be a backup.

I believe that the technology is better now but frozen eggs haven't always had that much success. So I'd check the success rates before deciding if it's worth it.

Frozen embryos have better success rates or did in the past but then if you happened to be with a different partner this might not be appropriate. Also some people struggle to dispose of frozen embryos if no longer needed while eggs are less emotional.

Also bear in mind there will be an annual storage cost too.

Just my thoughts. Live your life the way that works for you. Best of luck with your future wedding and future family x

Honestly, really really honestly, have babies now and worry about the rest later if you know you want a family. Freezing egg? Waiting for financial security? You’re waiting your life away IMO. Doesn’t matter how organised you want to be, things can change in a heartbeat.

I wish someone had told me to freeze my eggs at 25. By the time I was 30 I was struggling.

Hi there. I have done already 2 cycles of egg freezing and I am 26. That is because of infertility issues though. If you know you have many eggs each month, a high AMH and a low FSH, I would say you can go for it. They might not even give you any hormones in the process. I thought about it for almost a year before starting bc I wasn't sure if I wanted a baby to begin with. But since you are sure you would love to have kids, I think you should go for it <3

Have you got up-to-date price quotes? When I did IVF egg freezing would have been about 60% of the cost of IVF, plus the annual amount to store them, plus the cost of actually using them, so it would be more expensive than IVF in total, just distributed differently. Personally I’d rather put that money aside and spend it on IVF later if need be. If you do egg freeezing then turn out not to need help conceiving, the money’s already gone.