# What is the oldest age you can freeze your own eggs?



## urbangirl (Jul 28, 2010)

Last year,when I was 42, I asked my consultant if I could have my eggs freezed. He said it was impossible, absolutely no way because the quality would be no way good enough. I was really annoyed, putting it mildly, as he didn't know that, and anyway, only 30% of our eggs are chromosomally abnormal at that age (according to a paper from my excellent US clinic, which invites me to take part in a research project for older women when I do my ivf).

Also, yesterday I read in the paper that Lord Young's 51 year old daughter has just given birth using eggs she had frozen *in 2003 * when she was told she had cancer. This is extraordinary- if they could freeze her eggs 8 years ago then they should surely be able to do it for women now with the little steps of progress that have been made. My maths says she was 43 when she had her eggs frozen. On Wednesday (I think) there was a piece in the Daily Mail about a new egg freezing technique and a baby who has just been born through that method.

Also why won't they freeze our eggs when they we ask, when they are willing to freeze any decent ones left over from ivf? It just doesn't make sense. I wish I had been more forceful about this last year but I didn't know enough then to be able to respond confidently enough.

Anyone else got any thoughts or experiences?


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## Helen3 (Dec 2, 2010)

Hi Urbangirl,
I was 44 when I originally had OE IVF & all 10 of our left over grade 1 embryos were frozen! This was at the Barts hospital in London (4 of our FEs are still there & we have to make a decision about them this year).
However, nobody then pointed out to us the very very low odds of success with our IVF & therefore we have felt a bit cheated about this, & are not entirely sure what to do with our FEs (apart from the obvious - let them perish - which may be v practical & sensible but not v easy to do). I am so much better informed than I was then, which I know is my fault to a large degree. Sadly I just didn't know about FF then & all the information that is available as a result, as I wasn't nearly as computer literate as I am now.
Anyway, my point is that nobody seemed to care about my age when they went ahead with IVF & subsequently froze our embryos. I would imagine that there are still clinics who would be prepared to do this for you but I am not sure of this. Hopefully, others will come forward with their advice & knowledge, & you could simply phone clinics & ask them, if this is what you want to do.

Good luck


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## urbangirl (Jul 28, 2010)

Hi Helen, thanks for your comment,  I just wndered, why were the odds for your ivf so low? Because if the main reason for failure for older women is egg quality and yours were very good, surely your odds should have been fairly good?  Much older women have a very high success rate with donor eggs, which suggests it's the egg quality that counts. I see from your biog you're doing immunes, do you not think you could have success with one of those embryos if that side of things was sorted out?


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## Helen3 (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks Urbangirl.
Yes, we are considering immune meds with our OE, but I think I am scared of failing yet again! I was so devastated last time we tried (with DE but without immune meds), however, we had never been checked for immune etc issues before so you are right, it probably would be better to try one last time with our FEs. We have discussed this with Dr Thum who understands how precious they are - our last chance with OE - & he reckons there is about a 5% chance of success. If we try with DE that rises to about 50%. I think we will go ahead with our OE first otherwise we will never know, but it's hard to go through all the meds (daily injections, possible side effects etc) for a 5% chance. The other thing I am thinking about is whether to have more tests done (probably under Dr Gorgy) & therefore potentially more meds, to throw everything at these FEs, or just go with Dr Thum's 'lighter' protocol which may be enough. As usual, lots of decisions to be made & issues to work through!

First things first though, I have a dissertation to finish (due in just over a week!).
Thank you again for your comments - you put my thoughts into words & that helps.


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## Helen3 (Dec 2, 2010)

Oh, just wanted to add that regarding egg quality, I have been told that although our embryos were grade ones, this is just an eyeball estimate from the embryologists, & that they can never truly tell quality from looking at eggs/embryos - I guess you'd have to have special testing for that (can't remember what it's called but I think it's available at Care Notts).


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## urbangirl (Jul 28, 2010)

Good luck with whatever you decide.  I still don't understand though, why your stats are so low, if you do decide to go ahead with your own eggs I hope they turn out as good  as they appeared to be.  You have checked out the immune threads here, haven't you, regarding stronger treatment?  It's a lot to of information to take in, lots of luck!


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