EAST LANSING, Mich. — The pandemic has made some people stop and think about their future when it comes to kids. One of the results: More women are freezing their eggs.
Egg freezing offers women and families flexibility when it comes to pregnancy.
"Egg freezing is an option to consider where we can carefully grow eggs that you have saved them, preserve them at a younger age and have them as an option, potentially, if you were to need them in the future when you're ready to build your family," said Dr. Hanh Cottrell, of IVF Michigan Fertility Center. "The pandemic has given a lot of us time just to pause, maybe consider what are our goals present what our goals in the future. And there was initially a hesitancy with COVID and pregnancy."
Another motivation for freezing eggs is that people might not have been able to find the right person to have kids with.
"Individuals that haven't found the partner with all the social distancing that was involved in the pandemic...which has limited the interactions and apparently partners," Cottrell said. "So I think that also played a big factor in individuals potentially not finding the right partner to delay their family building, seeking options such as egg freezing to provide them that flexibility for their future family building."
She says if you have the option freezing eggs is always preferably better in your late 20s and early 30s.
"We're seeing more individuals kind of during that time span to seeking information. But we also have individuals that are later entering their life."
In 2018,IVF Michigan Fertility Center saw 31 cycles started with the intent to freeze eggs for fertility preservation. In 2019 that number went up to 32 and in 2020 it went up to 37.
"Last year, we did approximately close to 60 or more so that our numbers have doubled, as well. So there's definitely growing interest. Another thing that factors into that growing interest is that there's also more and more employers that are providing egg freezing benefits to further employees. So that's also a growing interest," said Cottrell.
According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the egg freezing trend was moving upward prior to the pandemic.
"We don't have 2020 just yet. But if you look at national numbers, just in 2019, there were over 16,000 egg freezing cycles, versus in 2018 13,000. 2017 was 9,000. So almost close to doubling here over kind of a three-year time span," Cottrell said.
Cottrell says there's no time limit on how long your eggs can be frozen. In fact, she says they can be frozen indefinitely.
"It's kind of a balancing act," Cottrell said. "There is a potential chance that you may not need these eggs when you are potentially with the right partner. You may conceive just without assistance. But the beauty of egg freezing is that you have these reserved in case you need it."
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