Almost half of women who chose to freeze their eggs in their 30s — a process called elective oocyte cryopreservation — return years later to use their eggs, according to research presented today (Monday) at the 39th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). However, many women who had their eggs frozen never use them, even if they return to the clinic for fertility treatments.
“Increasing numbers of women are choosing to freeze their eggs in the hope that it will enable them to have children later in life. However, there is a lack of evidence on how effective this strategy is. To our knowledge, this is one of the first and largest reports of reproductive outcomes in women who had elective oocyte cryopreservation at a European fertility centre,” said Dr. Ezgi Darici, a clinical fellow at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Belgium.
Almost 900 women who had elective oocyte preservation for non-medical reasons participated in this study at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine between 2009 and 2019. Their mean age was 36, and many were not married or had partners. By May 2022, 27% of the women had returned to the centre for treatment. Their average age was 40, and most were married or in a stable relationship. Almost half of these women used their frozen eggs as part of their fertility treatment. This included intrauterine insemination (where sperm are delivered directly into the womb) and IVF using fresh eggs.
Just over 40% of these women gave birth to a healthy baby, while 30% suffered a miscarriage. “We found that many women who chose to freeze eggs in their 30s had not yet returned for fertility treatment. Among those who did return for treatment, around half used their frozen eggs. These were older women, on average. The choice of whether to use fresh or frozen eggs is made based on what treatment is best for each individual woman, and factors such as the woman’s age are important. We cannot really compare the two groups as there will be many differences that could underlie any disparity in pregnancy and birth rates. However, women who had frozen their eggs had several options open to them, and we found positive rates of pregnancy and birth regardless of whether the women had fertility treatment with fresh or frozen eggs,” said Dr Darici.
“The aim of elective oocyte cryopreservation is to mitigate the risk of infertility in later life. However, this can be an expensive choice, and there is a lack of evidence to show how useful it is. This study suggests that frozen eggs can be useful for older women who are struggling to have children; however, we need much more research to prove that this is the case. Routine reporting on fertility outcomes for women who opt to freeze their eggs would help build up a clearer picture. This could help establish guidelines for young women who are considering freezing their eggs,” added Professor Carlos Calhaz-Jorge from the Northern Lisbon Hospital Centre and the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon (Portugal), was not involved in this research.
Presentation no: O-081, “A 10-year follow-up of reproductive outcomes in women returning after elective oocyte cryopreservation”, presented by Ezgi Darici.