Egg Freezing in Ontario
NewLife Fertility Centre Helps with Egg Freezing
Have you always wanted to have children but want to focus on your career for the time being? Perhaps you aren’t financially stable to raise a child yet. Delaying pregnancy is often the best option for mothers, fathers, and the child themselves. However, delaying pregnancy can mean your eggs become older and less effective. The reality is, your biological clock just might not lineup with your timeline. Never fear—new technology makes it possible to freeze your eggs early and preserve them for when you’re ready to have children. NewLife Fertility Centre in Ontario is here to guide Our fertility team can answer all your questions and give you peace of mind.
Learn More About Egg Freezing
When heard out of context, egg freezing sounds like a procedure of the future. However, it is very much possible today. Before you commit to this reproductive option, be sure you understand the facts. NewLife Fertility Centre is here to make sure you have all the information. Browse the following facts about egg freezing before you make your decision:
- Fertility tends to decline around age 30. Women are born with around four million eggs, but by age 30, that number decreases to about 100,000.
- By menopause or age 45, most women have very few viable eggs left.
- In vitro fertilization’s success rate using frozen eggs is much higher if you freeze your eggs at a younger age.
- The egg freezing cycle takes only two weeks, and the procedure itself takes 20 minutes. You’ll visit us a few times throughout your During this time, you can maintain your normal schedule and return to work the day after the procedure.
- Egg retrieval comes with minimum discomfort under light anesthesia.
- Eggs can be frozen at our fertility clinic for an unlimited length of time. They’ll see no decrease in quality over time, so you have plenty of time to try natural conception.
- Contrary to popular belief, egg freezing is not an experimental procedure and is widely used across North America.
Deciding If Egg Freezing is Right for You
Egg freezing isn’t right for everyone. If you’re over the age of 40, we generally discourage egg freezing, as the eggs may no longer be viable. Most suitable candidates for this procedure fall between the ages of 25 and 37. Other motives for choosing to freeze your eggs include a family history of menopause and pre-existing medical conditions that reduce your chances of a healthy pregnancy. Generally speaking, egg freezing might be right for anyone looking to delay having children. Before you write off egg freezing as a way of postponing pregnancy, talk to the team at NewLife Fertility Centre.
Explore Our Frequently Asked Questions
Because egg freezing is such an innovative procedure, it’s natural to have numerous questions. At our fertility clinic, we want to give each patient peace of mind when it comes to this method of conception. We’ve compiled some of our most frequently asked questions below for your convenience:
Q: Is There a “Best Age” to Freeze My Eggs?
A: In general, the younger you are when you choose egg freezing, the better. You can attempt to freeze your eggs at an older age, but women over the age of 37 will need a much more time-consuming process to retrieve healthy eggs.
Q: Can I Become Pregnant with Frozen Eggs?
A: Through in vitro fertilization, it’s very possible to become pregnant with frozen eggs. Although many women are unfamiliar with this method on how to get pregnant, egg freezing has been in use for decades.
Q: How Many Eggs Should I Freeze?
A: For most patients, we recommend freezing around 20 eggs. Not every egg will result in pregnancy, and we want to make sure you have enough frozen eggs if you choose to have more than one child.
Q: Will All My Eggs Be Used at Once?
A: At NewLife Fertility Centre, we typically thaw six to eight eggs at a time. This way, you can have multiple attempts at pregnancy with each thaw cycle. If you’ve chosen to freeze our recommended 20 eggs, you can choose to attempt pregnancy again in another few years.
Q: I Have Cancer. Is Egg Freezing for Me?
A: Egg freezing can be an excellent solution for women with cancer that might threaten their ovaries. If you’re starting chemotherapy or radiation soon, we can fast-track your treatment and begin the two-week egg freezing process right away. This is available for a reduced fee.
Why Choose NewLife Fertility Centre?
Exploring the methods of how to get pregnant is stressful, but the NewLife Fertility Centre is here to help. We aim to make the process less burdensome and more streamlined to simplify your experience with us. We understand getting pregnant is an emotional process as well as a physical one, so our staff is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care with compassion. Our high level of expertise allows us to be the only fertility clinic in Canada to offer financing options to our patients without compromising quality. Plus, we offer flexible appointment times to help accommodate you.
Visit Our Team for Egg Freezing in Mississauga
No matter why you want to delay conception, NewLife Fertility Centre is here for you every step of the way. We understand all the considerations that go into this decision, and we’ll help monitor ovulation and pregnancy symptoms. If you’re interested in egg freezing for any reason, please contact us in Mississauga, ON today.
Generally speaking, egg freezing is suggested for women:
- Seeking to preserve eggs to extend their fertility in the future
- Between ages 25 and 37
- Who aren’t ready to have children right now
- With a family history of early menopause
- Facing medical treatments like chemotherapy
- Wishing to delay having another child
- Looking to overcome complications associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy
- With certain medical conditions such as ovarian cysts
Age & Fertility
Female fertility begins to decline in a woman’s late twenties, and the continued loss of eggs associated with this decline results in increased rates of miscarriage, chromosomal (genetic) abnormalities, and infertility (especially for women older than thirty-five). Egg freezing affords a woman the opportunity to use ‘younger’ eggs whenever she decides she would like to become pregnant. This allows her to avoid the decreased fertility and increased miscarriage rates associated with advanced age.
Because of this, as a general rule of thumb, earlier is better when it comes to selecting a time to freeze your eggs. Younger eggs offer better chances of a successful pregnancy, no matter when you decide to use the eggs.
- Optimum egg freezing age is 25-37 when you have the highest ovarian reserve
- Your ovaries age with you and your number of usable eggs declines
- Your uterus remains healthy and able to support the pregnancy until about age 50
- You lock in your chance of a successful future pregnancy at the age your eggs are retrieved; if you freeze your eggs at age 28 and use them at age 39, your success rate is that of a 28-year old
- Egg freezing after age 37 is still an option, but you may need multiple IVF cycles to get the recommended number of eggs
As is true of many other reproductive options that offer a woman increased agency in her future, there is just as much fiction floating around about egg freezing as there are facts. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the facts so that you can feel confident discussing your reproductive health and fertility options.
Egg Freezing Fact
- Female fertility begins to decline around age thirty, as does egg quantity AND quality. These factors decrease significantly after age thirty-five. That’s why it is so beneficial to preserve your youngest eggs. You are born with almost four million eggs. By the time you’ve reached puberty, it drops to 400,000 and you lose about 1,000 eggs with every menstrual cycle. By age thirty, women have just under 100,000 eggs remaining. By forty, that number is close to zero.
- By the time a woman reaches menopause (around forty-five), she will have barely any healthy egg-producing follicles remaining. And if any follicles do remain, they are usually unable to reach full maturation due to natural hormonal changes, which negatively affect their growth.
- The younger you are when you freeze your eggs, the better the chances of a successful pregnancy later. The success rate for IVF with frozen eggs is based on when the eggs are harvested, not when they’re implanted. So if you freeze your eggs when you’re thirty and don’t use them until you’re forty, you will have essentially frozen the process in time. You’ll have the same chance of a successful pregnancy as when you were thirty. We typically advise against freezing your eggs over the age of forty.
- A complete egg freezing cycle takes just two weeks, during which you can maintain your regular schedule: Most women are fully functional and able to carry on with their daily routines, whether that involves work, exercise, or other activities. The only changes in routine include light medications and a few office visits. The egg-retrieval procedure usually takes about twenty minutes and you can return to work the next day.
- There is no limit to the length of time eggs can be frozen. Eggs can be frozen today and will remain frozen and stable indefinitely with no decrease in quality over time. We encourage patients to first try to conceive naturally and only use their frozen eggs if they’re unsuccessful. Or even to save them for a second or third child. In essence, freezing your eggs should be considered a terrific ‘backup plan.’
- Vitrification is the most advanced technique for freezing eggs: The first baby born from a frozen egg occurred decades ago in 1986. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has concluded that egg freezing is a successful technique with outcomes comparable to standard IVF cycles. Egg freezing is NOT considered experimental and is now widely utilized by women as a viable option to preserve their fertility. Vitrification or flash freezing is a newer and more effective method of freezing than cryopreservation. Upon thawing, the eggs have about the same chance of success as a fresh IVF cycle.
- Throughout the two-week egg-freezing process, you can maintain your regular schedule. You will need to come in for 3 to 5 brief office visits in order to monitor your progress and determine the best time for egg retrieval.
- The egg retrieval process involves minimal discomfort. The entire procedure takes about twenty minutes and is done under light anesthesia. You may go back to work the next day.
Q: Is Egg Freezing Helpful For Women Facing Cancer Treatment?
A: Women with cancer whose ovaries face the possibility of damage through chemotherapy or radiation therapy are excellent candidates for our Fast Track program. The program works just as its name implies: as soon as your next menstrual cycle begins, we can start the two-week egg freezing process at a significant fee reduction.
Q: Is There A ‘Best Age’ To Freeze My Eggs?
A: Keep this in mind through your family-planning process: the younger you are at the time of freezing, the greater your potential for a healthy child. In other words, the health of your baby reflects the age of the egg at the time it is frozen. Because of this, we recommend egg freezing for women between ages twenty-five and thirty-seven.
After age thirty-seven, it is still possible to freeze eggs, but the process will likely be more time-consuming. Because the quality and quantity of your eggs decline rapidly after age thirty-five, it will likely take multiple cycles to harvest an adequate supply of mature, healthy eggs.
Q: Can I Become Successfully Pregnancy With Frozen Eggs?
A: Your chances of becoming pregnant with frozen eggs are typically the same as your chances of becoming pregnant with fresh eggs and IVF. Age is always a factor in potential fertility success, but if you freeze your eggs at age twenty-five and decide to use them at age thirty-five, your chance of a successful pregnancy is the same as when you were twenty-five, provided the staff and facility where your eggs are harvested and stored is optimal.
Q: How Many Eggs Should I Freeze?
A: In order to open the door for more than one child and multiple attempts at pregnancy in the future, we typically recommend freezing twenty mature eggs. Because of not every harvested egg results in a pregnancy, it’s crucial to freeze a substantial number of eggs.
Q: Will All My Eggs Be Used At Once?
A: The process of using, or unfreezing your frozen eggs is called an egg thaw cycle. In order to develop the healthiest, strongest embryo, we thaw six to eight eggs at a time, in batches. It is possible that you could have multiple attempts at pregnancy with each batch, depending upon how many eggs from each batch fertilize successfully.
Q: How Long Is The Entire Freezing Process?
A: Beginning with Day 1 of your period, an egg freezing cycle lasts two weeks. You can maintain your regular schedule throughout the process, with the addition of taking light medication and three to five brief office visits for monitoring. Your egg retrieval procedure is the only day you may have to alter your regular routine. The procedure takes about twenty minutes under light anesthesia and with minimal discomfort. You may return to work within 24 hours.
Q: Can I Freeze My Eggs If I’M 40 Or Older?
A: In order to set yourself up for the best chance of successful future pregnancies, we strongly suggest freezing your eggs as early as possible. Unfortunately, this means that we advise against freezing your eggs after age forty.
Choosing NewLife Fertility
NewLife Fertility has been freezing eggs using vitrification technology since 2004, performing hundreds of cycles each year, giving us substantial experience with the process. Furthermore, enough time has elapsed to allow the accumulation of data for pregnancy outcomes in women returning to use their frozen eggs.
We offer the following benefits to egg-freezing patients:
- Thawing frozen eggs is an incredibly important aspect of the egg freezing program, as this is a very sensitive technique that can decrease your chances of conception if the right practitioner is not performing the thaw. NewLife Fertility, we have a depth and breadth of experience with thawing that is unparalleled.
- We are the only fertility practice in the country to offer financing programs for elective egg freezing.
- We designed a streamlined process to simplify your experience while maintaining the highest levels of quality.
- Flexible appointment times are available.
Let’s get started together. Call us today to learn about the power of what’s possible, 905-896-7100, or schedule an appointment online.