My doctor gave me the green light to freeze my eggs: What now?

First, congratulations! You took your first step towards taking control of your fertility health and future. Awareness is key, and you’re already making strides to know more about your body and plan for your future. There are factors to consider before pulling the trigger on an egg freezing cycle that you might not be aware of.

Insurance Coverage and Costs

One of the first things to find out is what your insurance covers as it varies. You’ll want to investigate your plan to see what your benefits are and what your out of pocket costs would be. If you don’t have insurance coverage, this may either mean a delay in egg freezing, or an investigation into other jobs that would cover this expense so you don’t have to pay out of pocket- which could be thousands to budget those costs as you plan to keep them frozen in the future. Even if the procedure, medications, and monitoring are covered by insurance, the actual freezing and storage of eggs is never covered by insurance. It will be important to budget those costs as you plan to keep your eggs frozen in the future.

Logistics

Once you move forward with an egg freezing cycle, you will need to do 1-3 injections per day for up to two weeks. If you don’t want to be the one performing those injections, you will need to make sure to find someone you trust to do so. You’ll also be going in for ultrasound and blood test monitoring a few times a week. Some clinics offer early hours, but these visits can impact your school or work schedule. You’ll need to take the day off for the day of the egg retrieval, and you’ll need someone to bring you home after the procedure. You’ll have been on anesthesia, so you can’t take an Uber home by yourself and will have to plan for a ride home.

 You won’t be able to exercise during your stimulation cycle, but there are other ways in which you can safely release those endorphins and stay active.

Physical effects

As the medications stimulate your ovaries, your abdomen will expand to accommodate them at their new size. Don’t be alarmed! This bloating will decrease once you have your procedure. It will take around 2 weeks after your procedure for your body to feel back to normal.

Emotional Effects

Depending on the reasoning behind your decision to freeze eggs, you may or may not be sharing this with a lot of people. Even if you do share this experience with friends or family, it can sometimes feel isolating as you’re going through your stimulation cycle. Make sure you’ve got a support system in place for the highs and lows that come with this process. The goal of this procedure is a large number of eggs to freeze, but it’s important to manage expectations and understand that not every follicle contains an egg, and not every egg retrieved will be mature and able to be frozen.

There are many factors to consider when freezing your eggs, but we believe that if you think you may want children in the future, but know that it isn’t in your near future, this may be a great option to give you more choices later on. The choice is yours to move forward with the egg freezing process, but the more you know about the procedure, the better you can make your decision if this is right for you.