How Many Eggs Are Enough?

HOW MANY FROZEN EGGS DO I NEED?

Not only is this perhaps the most common question asked of fertility doctors, it is also one of the most, if not the most, difficult to answer. To put it simply, the more eggs you bank the better the odds of future pregnancy. And, the younger you are when you freeze the better the quality and quantity of eggs you’ll produce.

Not only is there no magic number of frozen eggs, there are also many factors at play throughout the egg freezing process that directly impact the odds of conception, including:

Expertise of clinic

Age of patient at retrieval

Quantity of mature eggs retrieved

Quality of eggs retrieved

Success of thawing process

Number of embryos produced

Quality of embryos

Number of frozen embryos transferred

EGGSURANCE INTERVIEW WITH DR. EVE FEINBERG

During an interview with Eggsurance, Dr. Eve Feinberg explained how she counsels her egg freezing clients:

I counsel my patients who are in their mid-30s that 15 eggs to achieve one live birth is probably a safe bet. Is it an exact science? No, there is no data that is published, but if you look at maturity rates, fertilization rates, embryo development rates in general you are going to see 80% maturity, 75%-80% fertilization and 50% blastocyst development and on average two blastocysts equal one baby. Therefore, the attrition rate is such that somewhere around 15 eggs will equal one child.

FACTORS AT PLAY

To put this in context, let’s say ….a 35 year old woman harvests 12 eggs, 10 of which are mature and frozen. Of her 10 frozen eggs, typically 90%+ will survive thawing leaving her with about 9 frozen eggs. Of those 9 eggs, approximately 3-4 will become healthy embryos with a 40% chance of success.

SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

Again, there is no magic frozen egg number, but here are some target egg counts by age:

Age at retrieval

<34
35-37
37-39
40+

Target # frozen eggs

12
12-15
15-20
20+

SHOULD I DO MULTIPLE EGG FREEZING CYCLES?

Don’t get ahead of yourself here. Thinking about two cycles, from a financial, physical to emotional perspective, before you have even finished your first may (and very likely will) send you over the edge. As the saying goes, take one day or one cycle at a time.