Tag: egg count

Thinking about egg freezing? Learn how it works, success rates, costs, and when to start preserving your fertility. Thinking about freezing your eggs? Whether you’re planning for the future or not ready to start a family just yet, egg freezing  is a powerful fertility preservation option. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about how to freeze your eggs, how to freeze your eggs, and what factors to consider, including age, success rates, and costs. What Is Egg Freezing and Why Do People Do It? Egg freezing, also known as oocyte cryopreservation, is a fertility preservation technique that allows you to save your eggs for future use. It’s becoming an increasingly popular option for those who want to keep their options open when it comes to having children later in life – but does it guarantee you’ll have a baby? Let’s explore the facts. People choose egg freezing for a variety of reasons, including: Planning to have children later in life Undergoing medical treatment that could affect fertility (e.g. chemotherapy) Personal or career goals Not having found the right partner yet We explore this further in Who should consider fertility preservation?  How does the Egg Freezing Process Work?  Step 1: Hormone Stimulation You’ll take fertility medications to stimulate your ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs in one cycle. During this time, you’ll attend regular scans and blood tests to monitor your response. Step 2: Egg Collection (Egg Retrieval) After ~10-14 days of stimulation, your eggs are collected in a short medical procedure under sedation. Once your eggs are ready, they’ll be collected via a minor surgical procedure under sedation. Most people recover within a day or two. Step 3: Freezing and Storage (Cryopreservation) Your eggs are frozen using a fast-freezing technique called vitrification, then stored safely in liquid nitrogen for potential use in the future. Can Freezing Your Eggs Guarantee a Baby? The short answer is no – freezing your eggs does not guarantee you’ll have a baby. It can increase your chances, especially if you freeze your eggs at a younger age, but several factors affect whether you’ll conceive and carry a baby successfully later in life. One major factor is your age at the time of freezing. Younger eggs tend to be healthier and more likely to result in a successful pregnancy. Freezing eggs in your twenties or early thirties typically leads to better outcomes than doing so in your late thirties or forties. Another key factor is the number of eggs you freeze. Not all eggs will survive the freezing and thawing process. Even if they do, not every egg will fertilise or become a healthy embryo. Your overall reproductive health at the time you want to use the eggs also matters. This includes the health of your uterus, your hormone levels, and any underlying fertility issues that may have developed over time. Success also depends on the quality of sperm used and the effectiveness of IVF when you’re ready to conceive. A partner’s or donor’s sperm must be healthy enough to fertilise the eggs, and the embryo must implant successfully in the uterus. When Is the Best Age to Freeze Eggs? If you’re asking, “When should I freeze my eggs?” the general recommendation from fertility experts is between you late 20s to mid 30s. During this window, egg quality and ovarian reserve are still relatively high, giving you the best chance of success later. But this isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision. Everyone’s fertility journey is different. Some people may choose to free their eggs earlier or later depending on their health, family history, a medical condition that could affect fertility, or plans to undergo treatments like chemotherapy. Others may freeze their eggs later due to career, relationship, or financial considerations.. While it’s still possible to freeze your eggs after 35, it’s important to know that success rates may decline as egg quality and reserve begin to drop with age. If you’re wondering when to start the process, the best first step is to book a fertility assessment. This typically includes hormone testing and an ultrasound to check your ovarian reserve. With this information, you can get a clearer picture of your fertility status and make an empowered decision about whether and when to freeze your eggs. You may also want to understand how ageing can affect fertility rates in women. How Many Eggs Should I Freeze to Have a Baby? There’s no magic number, but we can estimate based on age and clinical data. Based on research from studies like Goldman et al. (2017) and Doyle et al. (2016), we can estimate the number of mature eggs typically needed to have about a 70% chance of achieving one full-term pregnancy. These numbers are estimates based on aiming for one baby, so if you’re hoping to grow a bigger family, freezing more eggs may be necessary to maximise your chances. Note: These numbers aim for one full-term pregnancy. This estimation may vary depending on other factors. If the goal is more than one child, more eggs should be frozen. What Are the Egg Freezing Success Rates? If you’re thinking about freezing your eggs, one of the most important things to understand is your chance of having a baby later on. While there’s no guaranteed number of eggs that will result in a full-term pregnancy, we can give a reliable estimate based on several factors especially your age at the time of freezing. Success with frozen eggs depends on four key steps: egg survival after thawing, fertilisation, embryo development, and successful implantation. Let’s break it down. Age at the Time of Freezing Matters Most Age is the single biggest factor influencing the quality and quantity of eggs. Younger eggs tend to be healthier and have a much higher chance of leading to a successful pregnancy. How Well Do Eggs Survive Freezing and Thawing? Thanks to modern vitrification techniques, between 90–95% of mature eggs survive the thawing process. That’s a big leap from older […]

Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) is a really important hormone for fertility. It can give insight into your ovarian reserve and how many eggs you have left. But what is a good AMH level for your age? Here’s everything you need to know about AMH levels.  Quick facts: What is AMH? Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) is an incredibly important hormone when it comes to fertility and overall reproductive health.  AMH is made by the small sacs, called follicles, in your ovaries. These follicles house your eggs. Because of this close relationship with your eggs, testing your AMH levels can therefore give you an insight into your ovarian reserve, or how many eggs you have at the time of testing.  We are all born with all of the eggs we’ll ever have. As we age, both our egg quality and quantity declines. This is due to both the natural ageing process and eggs being lost with each menstrual cycle. This happens right up until menopause when all your eggs are gone. As our egg count diminishes, generally so do our AMH levels, unless we have an underlying condition or lifestyle factor which is affecting our AMH levels (like PCOS).  What is a normal AMH level for my age? AMH levels will steadily decrease year after year from your mid-20s onwards. This occurs in tandem with your ovarian reserve declining.  After your mid-30s, AMH decline becomes much more rapid. It completely drops off as you near menopause (usually between 45 and 55 years old).  Although the overall levels of AMH by age is a general downward trend, each person has an individual rate of decline depending on genetics, lifestyle, medication and underlying conditions. What is a good AMH level? The higher your AMH the better, right? Well… not exactly. Like all of our hormones, too much or too little can indicate problems.  High AMH levels In general, higher AMH levels indicate a larger number of ovarian follicles and therefore a larger ovarian reserve.  However, some underlying reproductive health conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome PCOS are associated with high AMH levels too. PCOS can cause hormonal imbalances which can negatively impact your fertility. Symptoms of high AMH levels Generally, high AMH levels don’t have any specific symptoms. But if you’re experiencing any symptoms that indicate a possible problem with your cycle you should test your hormones including AMH levels to investigate the possibility of PCOS. These symptoms could be things like irregular or no periods, or any other PCOS symptoms like acne, excessive body or facial hair, hair thinning or loss.  Low AMH levels On the flip side, low AMH levels can indicate lower numbers of remaining follicles and therefore, a smaller ovarian reserve.  Very low AMH levels are often seen in premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), which is a condition where menopause occurs before the age of 40 or even when you are going to experience menopause. Ovarian surgery can also carry a risk of low AMH levels afterwards. Some lifestyle factors have also been linked to low AMH levels – smoking, obesity, and poor diet and nutrition—specifically insufficient Vitamin D levels.  How to increase AMH levels? Unfortunately, you can’t stop your AMH from declining with age. That being said, there are some lifestyle and diet changes that can improve your fertility.  Monitoring your AMH levels with an advanced hormone and fertility blood test if you have low AMH levels and are actively trying to conceive, or wanting to do so soon is a good idea to understand your rate of decline. Additionally, if you’re worried about your future fertility but not ready to have kids yet, you may want to consider egg freezing. Or, if you have low AMH levels and are struggling with conceiving, IVF treatment could be a good option for you.  If you’re concerned about your AMH levels, you can speak to our Private Gynaecologists at any time. Our Doctors can help you with a care plan that’s right for you and your body.  Do AMH levels fluctuate? Unlike your menstrual hormones which are cyclical, meaning their levels fluctuate throughout the month, your AMH levels stay relatively stable throughout your menstrual cycle. How do I know if I have normal AMH levels?  Testing your hormones is the only way to definitively know if your AMH levels are within the normal range for your age.  Doing an AMH blood test can give you an accurate insight into your current AMH levels, and give you an insight into your reproductive health because it is reflective of your ovarian reserve (egg count). Your AMH levels can also be used as an indication of whether you have polycystic ovaries, however, it can not currently be used to diagnose PCOS based on current guidelines. Understanding your AMH levels and ovarian reserve can also help to determine if you would be suitable for certain fertility treatments like IVF or egg freezing.  During fertility treatment, AMH levels are often tested to help determine the doses of medication and to predict the outcomes of the egg collection process.  Investigation of AMH levels is often done in combination with an Antral follicle count (AFC), which is an internal ultrasound scan where the number of small follicles seen on the ovary is counted. What is a good AMH level to get pregnant or to have IVF? Successfully getting pregnant is not entirely dependent on your AMH levels and ovarian reserve. Other factors can affect fertility such as: There is, therefore, no evidence of a good AMH level to increase the likelihood of pregnancy.  The success of IVF treatment is also dependent on many different factors. However, there is evidence that an AMH level lower than 5.4 pmol/L may have a poorer response to fertility medications. This is why some NHS IVF clinics will not accept patients who have an AMH level lower than this threshold.   Resources: