The Biological Clock
Fertility preservation is an important strategy for today's enterprising woman or couples who wish to pursue careers, advanced degrees, travel, or pursue other life dreams before starting a family. It is also a smart strategy for couples over 35 who started their family later in life and want more than one child.
The quality of a women's eggs begin to decline after the age of 23, and studies are now showing a man's sperm quality also begins to deteriorate at the age of 25. Fertility preservation is a fairly new trend being used mostly by men and women in their late 30's and 40's, however we think the smartest time to preserve fertility is when eggs and sperm are of their best quality and best chances of producing a healthy baby –and that is close to the mid 20's for both men and women.
To be more specific, at age 23 a woman's eggs begin a slow decline in quality, by the age of 35 her egg quality begins to decline more rapidly, and by the age of 41 she has only a 14.9% chance of having a baby using IVF due to poorer egg quality. The following table represents live birth rates by age reported by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). Click here for detailed statistics.
| LIVE BIRTH RATES BY AGE | <35 | 35-37 | 38-40 | 41-42 | 43-44 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of live births per transfer (using fresh Embryos) | 43.3% | 35.8% | 25.3% | 14.8% | 5.5% |
| Average # of embryos transferred | 2.4 | 2.6 | 3 | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| % of live births per transfer (using frozen Embryos) |
31.9% | 27.9% | 23.1% | 15.6% | 13.8% |
| Average # of embryos transferred | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.7 |
And while men continue to regenerate new sperm throughout their lifetime, their sperm also loses quality after 25. JAMA has reported 20 known birth defects to be caused by older fathers and another study reported it takes 5 times longer for a man over 45 to get pregnant than if he was 25.
New Hope Fertility Center uses the most advanced freezing technology, Vitrification, as its fertility preservation freezing method for eggs, sperm, embryos, and ovarian tissue.
Create an Egg Bank - Egg Freezing by Vitrification
A new strategy for women who wish to preserve their fertility at an age when their eggs are most viable is egg freezing. We recommend women freeze their eggs in their 20's but at least by the age of 35, although, there is no age limit –it all depends on your body and if we can still retrieve eggs from your ovaries. Egg freezing has only been touted for roughly 3 years so many women in their late 30's and 40's didn't have the option until recently, therefore most of our egg freezing patients are of this age, so regardless of age we recommend coming in to have your fertility health tested at any age.
We also recommend every woman have an Antral Follicle Count along with hormonal blood tests each year with her annual pap smear so she has constant knowledge of her fertility status and can make informed decisions about when to start a family or freeze her eggs. An Antral Follicle Count is a sonogram that shows how many follicles (eggs) you have in reserve. This will tell us how much time you have left on your fertility clock.
Create a Sperm Bank - Sperm Freezing by Vitrification
Sperm freezing is an option for men who also wish to preserve their fertility. Men do not have the same biological clock as women; they continue to produce new sperm, unlike women who are born with roughly 2 million eggs which they ovulate each month throughout their reproductive years until the eggs are finally depleted. But, even though men do not usually ‘run out' of sperm by a certain age, their sperm quality too begins to deteriorate with age. JAMA has reported 20 birth defects known to be caused by older fathers and another study reported it takes 5 times longer for a man over 45 to get pregnant than if he was 25. For this reason, it is a smart strategy for men to freeze their sperm if they plan to wait to have children, and we think the best time to do this is before the age of 25 –especially because the procedure is so easy and only costs $400.
Create an Embryo Bank - Embryo Freezing by Vitrification
During many IVF cycles some women will have excess embryos that are not transferred into her uterus. We can freeze these embryos for future cycles; this circumvents egg retrievals during those future cycles.
Alternatively, the frozen embryos can remain in your Embryo Bank and used when you are ready to add another baby to your family. This is especially beneficial for women over 35 whose egg quality will begin a rapid decline potentially preventing her ability to become pregnant again naturally when she is ready to have another child.
Last, another smart strategy for couples not yet ready for parenthood is to use IVF just to freeze and bank embryos for future use –just in case when the time is right her eggs and his sperm are older and of poorer quality, this buys them more time by using their eggs and sperm when they are young and healthy. Learn more...
An Egg Bank Alternative - Ovarian Tissue Freezing by Vitrification
Ovarian Tissue Freezing involves removing the ovary, carefully micro surgically dissecting the tissue, freezing it, and subsequently transplanting it back to the woman when she's ready for a child. It is an alternative to egg freezing when a woman prefers to undergo only one procedure to preserve all her eggs rather than only those eggs that can be extracted and frozen each egg retrieval cycle.