Pioneering new egg-freezing research has been published by Hertility Doctors, Dr Lorraine Kasaven and Dr Benjamin Jones. Read on for a summary of their findings on the optimal age to freeze your eggs.

Quick facts:

• Hertility Doctors have published new research on egg freezing. 
• The outcomes indicate that freezing your eggs before 36 years is recommended to increase your chances of conceiving.
• This is one of the few pieces of research that has been conducted on real-world outcomes of egg freezing.

Is it worth freezing your eggs in your 40s?

This is one of the most frequent questions our Doctors get asked by women over 40. The answer, to date, has been—there really isn’t enough data to answer this confidently. 

So, in true Hertility fashion, where the data doesn’t exist, we make it our mission to change that. 
This month, two of our Hertility Doctors, Dr Lorraine Kasaven and Dr Benjamin Jones, published a new study, ‘Reproductive outcomes from ten years of elective oocyte cryopreservation,’ using data from 373 women over ten years to find out the answer to this question once and for all.

Their findings suggest that women should get their eggs frozen before the age of 36 to increase their chances of successfully conceiving. 

Whilst previous research focused on the number of good quality eggs successfully frozen, Dr Lorraine and Dr Ben’s research looked at the real-world outcomes. Basically—what happened when women tried to use those successfully frozen eggs to get pregnant?

 The research outcomes

Of the 373 women who froze their eggs, only 36 returned to use them. Those 36 women went through a total of 41 frozen embryo transfers which resulted in 12 live births. 

None of those who froze their eggs after the age of 40 had a baby. 82% of the babies were born to women who froze their eggs between the ages of 36 and 39 years of age.

This research therefore suggests that egg freezing is a viable option for having children later in life but it’s not a ‘fail-safe’ way of preserving your fertility. 

This research indicates:

1. Egg freezing does not guarantee a successful live birth. 
2. Women should be encouraged to freeze their eggs much earlier than has been previously thought.
3. Women should be made aware of the risks and low likelihood of success when freezing eggs in their late 30s and 40s.

One step closer to closing the gender data gap

We are immensely proud to have our doctors flying the flag with such important research. This research directly arms our doctors with the most up-to-date research for patient consultations. 

It’s another small step forward in our universal understanding of female reproductive health and a giant step towards empowering the lives of women everywhere to have kids (or not) on their terms. 

Read the full paper here. 

References: 

Kasaven, L.S., Jones, B.P., Heath, C. et al. Reproductive outcomes from ten years of elective oocyte cryopreservation. Arch Gynecol Obstet306, 1753–1760 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-022-06711-0