Search

What is a good number of eggs to freeze?

8 fertility expert(s) answered this question

Answer from: Maria José Mendiola, MD, MSc in Human Genetics, MSc in Science Communication, ObGyn

Gynaecologist, Gynaecologist in Reproductive Medicine & Reproductive Genetics
Clínica Monterrico
play-video-icon-yt

The ideal number of eggs is not established as a general rule for all the patients. There are several studies that evaluate chances of achieving pregnancy with frozen eggs which obviously depend on the age when eggs have been frozen. The probability of success if they are frozen at age of 24 and before the age of 35 is 95% compared to 50% to those over 35 years old who froze the same number of oocytes. I have reviewed some of the studies. In one study when women froze before reaching 35 years, their probability of pregnancy freezing at 5,10,15 or 20 oocytes was respectively 16%, 43%, 70%, 78%. That probability when freezing a similar number of oocytes frozen by women over 35% was 6%, 25%, 38% and 50% so that shows need to freeze before age of 35.

Answer from: Melvin H. Thornton, Associate Professor

Gynaecologist, Medical Director & IVF Director
Global Fertility & Genetics
play-video-icon-yt

The best number of eggs to freeze for future fertility depends upon a woman’s age because you’re looking at quality and quantity. Younger women have better quality eggs so they won’t need as many. So you can have a woman who is under 35, and then she freezes eight eggs, she has over 50% chance of having one live birth in the future. However, as women get older, the quality of the eggs decreases, they’re going to require more. So the magic number of eggs that we recommend is anywhere between 15 to 20 no matter what your age is going to be. But of course, if you have a young healthy woman who goes through the egg freezing process, and she retrieved eight eggs that will be enough for her. Whereas if you have the same woman who’s 40 that may not be enough. However, she may be encouraged to undergo another egg freezing cycle to get close to that 15 to 20 number.

Answer from: Eugenia Rocafort, BSc, MSc

Embryologist, Senior Embryologist ESHRE and ASEBIR certified
Quironsalud Hospital Barcelona
play-video-icon-yt

We recommend is to freeze a minimum number of 8 eggs. We have to take into account that the eggs survival rate is about 90%. Let’s estimate that we will have seven eggs left and after that we we will have a fertilisation rate about 75 %. We will have 5 embryos and out of those 5 embryos we will achieve around 2 embryos. In order to achieve a quite good success rate, we recommend a minimum of 8 eggs but that will depend on the age of the patient. The older the patient is, the higher the number of eggs we will need.

Answer from: Ioannis Zervomanolakis, PhD

Gynaecologist, Obstetrician
Hygeia IVF Athens
play-video-icon-yt

The average number of eggs to freeze or the ideal number of eggs to freeze are two different terms. Since women under 35 have a higher number of eggs to be collected. There is a very interesting study regarding the number of eggs that we need in order to initiate pregnancy according to which, when we have a woman under 35 that freezes her eggs, we need around 6 to 8 eggs in order to achieve one pregnancy. And around 10 to 12 eggs, if the woman is over 36. But of course, every case is individual, so from the very beginning, we cannot tell each patient that the ideal number of eggs exists. I think we have only 3-4 eggs per cycle, then we decide to repeat this treatment.

Answer from: Ahmed Amer, DipRCPath, MBA, MSc, MEng

Embryologist, Senior Embryologist
ARGC Limited
play-video-icon-yt

The general rule is the more eggs we have frozen the higher chance of success. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day but it doesn’t say that you can’t get a baby from a lower number of eggs. You absolutely still can but it’s still the more eggs you have frozen, the more likely that one of those eggs will lead to a baby. Generally the number I recommend to my patients to have frozen, especially for those that are using for social fertility preservation (so they have the option of coming for stimulation again), I usually recommend about 15 eggs because that does give them 15 eggs or more because that does give them a sufficient or a significant chance of success.

Answer from: Jessica Subira, M.D. Consultant in Gynecology, Sub-specialist in Reproductive Medicine

play-video-icon-yt

The good number of eggs to be retrieved depends mainly on the age because it’s not the same if we have 15 eggs frozen from a woman that was 29 when froze the eggs as opposed to 15eggs frozen coming from a 42 year old woman so this is important.  In general terms, we are happy with a range between 10 and 15 something around that region and that will be considered as well like the average response but I mean the more the better because even in young patients especially we know that we can get even more than one live birth if we go up to 20 or 25 eggs. The rights that would be between 10 and 15 eggs but we can the more the better so to get more means more chances in the future.

Answer from: Bárbara Silvera Gijón, Embriologist

Embryologist, Embriologist
Quirónsalud Valencia
play-video-icon-yt

The average number of eggs that we recommend is between 15-20, of course some women Will make less and others Will make more, it always depends on the ovarian reserve. Also, having more does not result in being better. We can have 20 but only 10 that are ok for the vitrification. 

  • Women under 35 have the highest success rates in all of the “egg number” groups having at list 20 and even more.
  • Women under 38 will have  3 –10  eggs.
  • Women 38-40 and 41-42 have rates with less than 3 eggs retrieved, of course it always depends on the patient’s reserve. On these women we recommend having more stimulation procedures again to make sure you have a Good number of eggs vitrified because the quality depends on the age, younger eggs have better quality compared to women after  38.

 If you freeze 20 eggs it doesn’t mean that all will survive after thaw, them. According to current knowledge, the survival rate of vitrified oocytes is estimated between 80 and 90%

Answer from: Alicia Tio Castro

Embryologist, Fertility navigator
play-video-icon-yt

It always depends on different things like, for example, the age of the woman and the health condition. It is also essential to know that a one egg it won’t become a baby so, in the process when we collect the eggs, 90% of the eggs will survive the procedure, the vitrification, but of those that survive, a certain number will fertilize – not all of them will fertilize and of those that fertilize, a certain number will develop into healthy blastocyst and a certain number will become a healthy baby. So we need enough eggs to follow the procedure. A healthy woman under 35 has about a 85% chance of having a baby with around 50 eggs, 50 frozen eggs. If a 38 years old freeze 50 eggs that would represent only a 60 or 65% chance of having a baby and over 38 years old, the woman will need to preserve many more eggs to guarantee that they will have a healthy baby and that number will also vary from woman to woman because some women can be affected with a disease like endometriosis or PCOS that affect egg equality so, they will need more eggs. When they want to preserve the fertility, when a woman want to preserve the fertility, she also have to consider how many cycles she wants to do or how many babies she would like to have in the future to see what will be the process, what would be the best process if she wants to do more than one cycle or one would be enough. Also it’s important to consider the budget. Additionally, in some countries, the law established that the oocytes have to be used before 10 years after storage, so that’s something that patients have to consider as well.

About this question:

What is the best number of oocytes to freeze?

If you are due to have your egg collection soon, you might be wondering how many eggs will be retrieved, how many of them will be mature and how many will get frozen. So what is the best number of oocytes to have frozen?

Find similar questions:

Related questions