Who Can Freeze Their Eggs?

Several years ago, Facebook and Apple took an extraordinary step in providing female employees $20,000 worth of medical coverage for egg freezing. This move underscored the important role that egg freezing can play by allowing women more freedom and peace of mind when it comes to achieving their family-building goals.

As fertility experts, Richard Schmidt, MD, and Meera Shah, MD, appreciate the value of egg freezing, which is why we offer the service here at NOVA IVF.  

If you’d like to determine whether egg freezing is right for you, we outline a few of the more common scenarios we see here at our practice.

Weathering the COVID-19 storm

Many women who’ve come to see us recently for egg freezing do so because they’re, understandably, nervous about starting (or adding to) their families during these uncertain times. 

The long-term effects of COVID-19 are still being researched and we only have a year’s worth of data to study, which means answers are in short supply.

The good news is that so far, COVID-19 doesn’t seem to affect the health of children born during this time, but it does slightly increase a pregnant woman’s risk for serious disease and hospitalization. For more information, please refer to last month’s blog here.

If you’d rather wait until we clear the COVID-19 hurdle, egg freezing allows you to preserve your eggs for a future pregnancy.

Still on the move

One of the reasons large companies like Facebook and Apple decided to offer egg freezing is to allow women the freedom to pursue their careers without jeopardizing their chances of building a family down the road. 

For example, let’s say you’re between the ages of 25 and 35 and your career is taking off, but you still want to have a family once you’re more settled. Professionally speaking, egg freezing is a great option. 

With egg freezing, we can harvest your eggs while they’re viable and healthy for use when you’re ready.

Still looking for the right partner

If you’re in your 30s and still single, but you know you want to build a family one day, egg freezing provides you peace of mind knowing that you have viable eggs to use once you’ve created the family unit you desire.

Undergoing cancer treatments

Another reason women come to us to freeze their eggs is to preserve their fertility before they undergo invasive treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation. 

These slash-and-burn approaches to cancer are effective in eradicating the disease, but they can also affect your fertility. 

With egg freezing, you can focus your energy on fighting your cancer, all the while knowing that you’ve taken the right steps for preserving your ability to have children once you come out the other side.

These are just a few of the situations that we frequently encounter, and we understand that each woman’s needs are unique to them.

If you want to explore whether egg freezing is right for your situation, simply contact our office in Mountain View, California, to set up a consultation.