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Topics: Women's Health, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Women's Health, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy
For decades, women have been scare-mongered into freezing their eggs as early as they can.
It's long been drilled into us that there's no point in trying for children after 40, and that expensive procedures like egg freezing are futile once our 20s and 30s have gone by, given the sad reality that the quality of our eggs reduces with age.
According to experts at the Fertility and Gynaecology Academy, however, while doctors 'have been right to point out that there are problems with egg freezing after 40', this certainly shouldn't be applied to all cases.
In fact, many experts are trying to raise awareness of the opposite, emphasising that, while egg freezing may not yield the results they hope, there are alternative options available to women hoping to become mothers at a later age.
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And apparently, that's a bigger number than ever before.
According to Create Fertility leaders, the number of women undergoing pregnancy treatments over 40 has increased fourfold in the last 30 years. On top of this, 1 in every 25 babies being born is to a mother over 40.
"Doctors have a duty to inform patients that a woman aged 40 or above is more likely to achieve a healthy pregnancy using embryos that were created in her mid-30s than using fresh embryos over 40 years old," Dr Gorgy, a fertility expert at the FGA, explained.
"Unfortunately, the average age of women freezing their eggs is currently around the 37-38 year mark, which does not result in high success rates."
As we say, however, this doesn't necessarily mean that, if a woman has surpassed the age without freezing her eggs, that it's all doom and gloom.
"You can still freeze your eggs, but the chances of success are reduced as the quality of the eggs is related to the mother’s age at the time of their production," doctors went on to explain.
"Alternatively, you can freeze your embryos using your partner or donated sperm."
On this suggestion, they add: "If you do not want to conceive at this stage for whatever reasons, you can use your embryos in a surrogate mother.
"Lastly, you can do nothing if you accept to use donated eggs from another younger woman if and when you want to conceive. Instead, you may consider a number of other options, including conception using an egg donor or even surrogacy."