The Cost of Freezing Your Fertile Eggs
It’s more than money for meds and storage; it’s investing in your future.
Like any investment, a return is not guaranteed. Likewise, there’s no guarantee you’ll have a baby down the road.
If you’re not ready to try right now, the cost of freezing your eggs also buys you time until you are ready.
Prices depend mainly on where you live and which clinic you choose.
Generally, insurance does not cover preparing, harvesting, and storing eggs. So a call to check out your benefits and get any required pre-approval started is a smart first step.
On average, in America, the cost of egg freezing is $15,000-$20,000. This stage includes medication and hormone prep, bloodwork and transvaginal ultrasound, retrieval surgery, and freezing of the eggs.
You’ll also pay a storage fee. Basically, you are paying rent each month to maintain your frozen eggs at precisely the right temperature and conditions. That fee can range from $600-$1,000 per month.
A woman in her early 30’s could reasonably expect to spend $25,000-$30,000 by the time she’s ready to use the eggs to try and conceive.
There are financing options to spread the prep and retrieval costs over many years.
When planning and considering financing terms remember the next big expense on your journey will likely be in vitro fertilization (IVF). When ready to use your eggs, IVF costs around $10,000 per try.
Most medical procedures come with a hefty price tag. So take into account all that goes into giving you the best shot at bringing your baby into the world years in the future.
Multiple factors could push your costs up another $20,000 or more, including:
Age
Egg quantity and quality diminish as we get older. So if the doctor can retrieve only a few viable eggs, you may need another round of hormones and tests and another surgery to gather more eggs in a second or third round.
How Many is Enough?
In theory, you only need one viable frozen egg to make a baby. However, in practice, there is a preferred range to improve your chances of conceiving with frozen eggs.
Women in Their 20s and Early 30s:
Eight to 15 eggs
Women in Their Late 30s and 40s:
28+ eggs
AMH Levels
Low AMH levels may also require more rounds of egg retrieval. While the hormone has nothing to do with whether you can get pregnant today, it’s a factor that clinics use to estimate the expected outcomes of fertility treatment.
Some will need to take a hard look at the numbers to decide whether to freeze eggs for future use. Others will view tens of thousands of dollars as a small price to pay to have the chance to have a baby, or two, a bit later in life.
There’s help and information available so you can choose the best path for you.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
