Egg Freezing Myths Debunked: What Every Woman Should Know

Egg freezing is a cutting-edge innovation for fertility preservation in order to delay childbearing and empower individuals to choose to have children when they feel ready to do so. It has been commended as an ‘advanced technology’ with ‘ground-breaking’ results, however, the scientific nuances surrounding the egg freezing process are often not discussed transparently (1). As such, there are some misconceptions about egg freezing that need to be addressed in order for patients to be able to make informed decisions.

The societal stigma around assisted reproductive technology and single parenthood is likely a reason why individuals feel apprehensive about discussing egg freezing with those close to them and not seeking the right resources (2). Online and print media are the main sources of information for the general public. However, these sources often fail to dig deep into the medical complexity of the journey of a patient from getting eggs frozen to getting pregnant, and to address the factors that have a huge role to play. For example, a study found that media portrayals of the success rates of egg freezing could be confusing for readers; out of all the articles they analyzed, more than half mentioned that egg freezing does not always guarantee a pregnancy, however, they contrasted it with figures that would leave readers thinking that the success rates are higher than they actually are (3). This is a perfect example of how scientific data is often left out of sources or presented in an uninterpretable manner, thus necessitating the need for scientifically verified resources.

In this article we debunk a few common misconceptions surrounding egg freezing to help you understand the process better.

 

Do only infertile women freeze eggs?

It is important to understand that egg freezing is a way to preserve fertility. It was initially developed for preserving fertility in patients undergoing treatments that would damage their reproductive potential. Eggs are sensitive to radiation and certain chemical toxins, as such, patients undergoing treatments with radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer are often prescribed egg freezing before going onto such treatments. Moreover, patients undergoing ovarian surgery for conditions, like endometriomas, also freeze eggs. Furthermore conditions like Turner Syndrome and galactosemia increase the chances of premature ovarian insufficiency, necessitating the fertility preservation  through egg freezing prior to the onset of this insufficiency (4).

Many individuals proactively decide to freeze eggs in order to delay parenthood for non-medical reasons, often referred to as social or elective egg freezing. Multiple studies have reported how various factors are driving more individuals to freeze eggs in order to delay parenthood and have children when the time is more suitable for them. Some of the most cited reasons were: finding a suitable partner who shared the same desire for parenthood, completing formal education, establishing a chosen career, and having financial stability (5,6,7).

Therefore, egg freezing is a measure to preserve fertility and not to reverse infertility. It is an option and can be offered to anyone who may want to freeze their eggs for social, medical, or personal reasons.

 

Can you freeze eggs at any age?

One of the most important questions surrounding egg freezing is: when to freeze your eggs? Technically, you can freeze eggs at any time during your reproductive period, but the rate of successful outcomes decreases with increasing age. The fertility of persons with ovaries declines with increasing age due to a rapid decrease in the number of follicles that give rise to mature eggs around the age of 35 years; moreover, the quality of eggs and the genetic integrity of the embryos created is also impacted after the mid-30s (8,9).

The ‘younger the better’ – the scientific community advises that egg freezing should be done before the mid-30s as the yield of the eggs and the rate of live births is best when eggs are retrieved at an age less than 37.5 years, and the success rate diminishes with increasing age at which eggs are retrieved (10,11,12). However, even beyond the mid-30s egg freezing is a viable option, only with the caveat that the quality and number of eggs in the ovaries would have already reduced.

Since freezing eggs for non-medical purposes is an active choice to preserve fertility, it is worth noting that electing to freeze eggs at too early an age comes with the possibility of never having to use the frozen eggs as pregnancy can be achieved naturally. However, for medical reasons, as mentioned earlier, freezing is recommended at an early age for people with premature ovarian insufficiency (10).

 

Is one cycle of egg freezing enough?

One cycle could be enough, but it is not always true! As mentioned earlier, the ‘younger the better’ – the age of the patient is a factor in how many cycles one will need. At a younger age more number of eggs can be retrieved from the patient at once, thus requiring fewer cycles (13). The likelihood of requiring multiple cycles is increased with older age as it becomes difficult to retrieve a sufficient number of eggs from one cycle alone (10).

A UK based study reported that in a cohort of 23 patients, 57% underwent one cycle of egg-freezing while the rest had 2 or more cycles (14), highlighting that undergoing multiple cycles of egg freezing is not uncommon and is a relevant economical factor to keep in mind when considering egg freezing.

 

Does egg freezing always guarantee a baby later?

Even though the aim is to create a baby eventually, egg freezing does not always guarantee a baby in the future – it only allows fertility preservation for delaying childbearing and only maintains the possibility of bearing children with a genetic relationship in the future.

One study found that in a cohort of patients undergoing embryo transfer after thawing frozen eggs and creating embryos, not all individuals ended up with a pregnancy (15). This highlights that even after successful creation of an embryo and transferring it into the womb, there is no guarantee of a pregnancy. While there is no way of comparing the fertility potential of someone at the time of freezing eggs to fertility potential at the time of thawing their frozen eggs, it is important to note that freezing one’s eggs provides one with the choice of using them at a later time in life; whether these eggs will yield babies is a question that is determined by the quality of the frozen eggs and the reproductive health, such as the environment in the womb  at the time of choosing to bear children.

It is important to note that egg freezing does not always guarantee a baby and the age at which eggs were frozen, amongst other factors, has a major role on the success rates (2). Egg freezing maintains the possibility of bearing genetically related children in the future.

 

Do frozen eggs only last for a few years?

The short answer is that there is no evidence showing that long-term storage damages the eggs. In fact, a study found that the outcome of embryo transfer after eggs being frozen for 1 to 8.2 years was comparable. The chances of pregnancy and live births were not significantly different for eggs frozen for more than four years as compared to those stored for less than four years (16). Another study found similar results wherein the quality of the eggs, and subsequently the rate of fertilisation, pregnancy, and live births did not significantly differ across three groups of patients who used their eggs after 1–3 months, 4–6 months, and 7–48 months of being frozen (17).

This highlights that freezing eggs is a good form of investment for individuals who want to preserve fertility and want to have the option of having children when they feel ready to do so, and scientifically no evidence has been found so far to show that there is a limit to the age of frozen eggs.

The science behind women’s health and fertility has made leaps in the last few decades and it is constantly evolving, making it more necessary than ever for people to explore and make informed decisions about their health and well-being. There is a need for a more nuanced discussion around the science surrounding egg freezing and the emotional and psychological journey that the process involves. Information should be made available in a formal manner and participants of a survey conducted by Drost et al. (2023) expressed that they would like to have the information taught early on in life, for instance at school, given how timing of egg freezing can be so crucial. Moreover, since media portrayals form a key role in public opinion, it is essential that the content being fed to the public is scientifically reviewed and transparently presented. Furthermore, since clinics and service providers’ information forms an important part of the decision-making for patients, they should advertise their services in an interpretable way that does not use jargon, states key statistics about success rates, clearly mentions risks involved, and overall avoids biased advertising to persuade patients. This is where OvoLife comes in as we aim to provide scientifically accurate and interpretable information to raise awareness about the fertility options available to individuals who are wanting to explore preserving fertility and delaying parenthood. We hope this article has been helpful in your journey to understanding egg freezing better.

 

This blog was written by:

Ninisha Barman BSc (Imperial College), MPhil (Cambridge), Research Assistance at University of Oxford

Resources:

1. Gürtin, Z.B. & Tiemann, E., 2021. The marketing of elective egg freezing: a content, cost and quality analysis of UK fertility clinic websites. Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, 12, pp.56-68. – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405661820300289?via%3Dihub
2. Drost, L., Dason, E. S., Han, J., Doshi, T., Scheer, A., Greenblatt, E. M., & Jones, C. A. (2023). Patients’ and providers’ perspectives on non-urgent egg freezing decision-making: a thematic analysis. BMC Women’s Health, 23(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02189-3
3. Campo-Engelstein, L., Aziz, R., Darivemula, S., Raffaele, J., Bhatia, R., & Parker, W. M. (2018). Freezing fertility or freezing false hope? A content analysis of social egg freezing in U.S. print media. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 9(3), 181–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/23294515.2018.1509153
4. Han, E., & Seifer, D. B. (2023). Oocyte Cryopreservation for Medical and Planned Indications: A Practical Guide and Overview. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(10), 3542. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12103542
5. Baldwin, K., 2018. Conceptualising women’s motivations for social egg freezing and experience of reproductive delay. Sociology of Health & Illness, 40(5), pp.859-873. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12728
6. Kynigopoulou, S., Matsas, A., Tsarna, E., Christopoulou, S., Panagopoulos, P., Bakas, P., & Christopoulos, P. (2024). Egg Cryopreservation for Social Reasons-A Literature Review. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(23), 2421. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232421
7. Schmid, J.J., Weber, S. and Ehlert, U., 2025. Who freezes her eggs and why? psychological predictors, reasons, and outcomes of social egg freezing. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, 23(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12958-024-01342-3
8. Chronopoulou, E., Raperport, C., Sfakianakis, A., Srivastava, G. and Homburg, R., 2021. Elective oocyte cryopreservation for age-related fertility decline. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 38, pp.1177-1186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-021-02072-w
9. Faddy, M.J., Gosden, R.G., Gougeon, A., Richardson, S.J. and Nelson, J.F., 1992. Accelerated disappearance of ovarian follicles in mid-life: implications for forecasting menopause. Human reproduction, 7(10), pp.1342-1346. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.humrep.a137570
10.  Pai, H.D., Baid, R., Palshetkar, N.P., Pai, A., Pai, R.D. and Palshetkar, R., 2021. Oocyte cryopreservation-current scenario and future perspectives: a narrative review. Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, 14(4), pp.340-349. 10.4103/jhrs.jhrs_173_21
11. Varlas, V. N., Bors, R. G., Albu, D., Penes, O. N., Nasui, B. A., Mehedintu, C., & Pop, A. L. (2021). Social Freezing: Pressing Pause on Fertility. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 8088. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18158088
12. Walker, Z., Lanes, A. and Ginsburg, E., 2022. Oocyte cryopreservation review: outcomes of medical oocyte cryopreservation and planned oocyte cryopreservation. Reproductive biology and endocrinology, 20(1), p.10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12958-021-00884-0
13. Yoshinaga, K., Hashimoto, T., Fukuoka, Y., Okuyama, N., & Kyono, K. (2023). Non-medical oocyte cryopreservation at a single center in Japan: 8 years of experience. Reproductive medicine and biology, 22(1), e12549. https://doi.org/10.1002/rmb2.12549
14. Baldwin, K., Culley, L., Hudson, N., Mitchell, H. and Lavery, S., 2015. Oocyte cryopreservation for social reasons: demographic profile and disposal intentions of UK users. Reproductive biomedicine online, 31(2), pp.239-245.
15.  Kakkar, P., Geary, J., Stockburger, T., Kaffel, A., Kopeika, J., & El-Toukhy, T. (2023). Outcomes of Social Egg Freezing: A Cohort Study and a Comprehensive Literature Review. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(13), 4182. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12134182
16. Torra-Massana, M., Miguel-Escalada, I., Vassena, R., & Rodríguez, A. (2023). Long-term storage of vitrified oocytes does not affect pregnancy and live birth rates: analysis of 5362 oocyte donation cycles. Reproductive biomedicine online, 47(3), 103228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.04.019
17.  Parmegiani, L., Garello, C., Granella, F., Guidetti, D., Bernardi, S., Cognigni, G.E., Revelli, A. and Filicori, M., 2009. Long-term cryostorage does not adversely affect the outcome of oocyte thawing cycles. Reproductive biomedicine online, 19(3), pp.374-379. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1472-6483(10)60171-X