It’s that time again. The time between the lines on a resume. Where adventure awaits. I’ll be doing 100 different things over the next six weeks, but none as exciting (and probably uncomfortable) as freezing my eggs! 👀

Before 30, I knew I didn’t want children. At 30, it became a possibility. Since 30, I’ve been researching and interviewing friends and strangers about the option to keep my options open. On my birthday this year, I decided to freeze my eggs.

What I’ve learned is that this subject is still mostly limited to those struggling with natural conception, and a small portion of individuals who have been lucky enough to be exposed to, or educated about their bodies and their options.

Like most areas of women’s reproductive health and well-being, it’s not typically something that is discussed. It remains a confusing taboo primarily due to the disproportionate focus on infertility rather than fertility. As adults, the only formal education we receive is what we learned in high school: How not to get pregnant.

Additionally, as women, we remain and are increasingly encouraged to be ambitious, professionally and otherwise. This often means delaying pregnancy and children until later. And all we know about “later” is that it’s complicated. Some combination of our older female family members and Cosmopolitan magazines told us that our clocks started ticking.. but when? How? To what end?

I found my lack of answers to such important questions to be nothing short of disturbing. I knew almost nothing about the most profound biological process a woman can enter. I’m not a doctor, and everyone is different, but I can share my reasons and my experience. And maybe, it can start the conversation for others.

What I’ve learned:

As we age the overall quality of our bodies and especially reproductive cells and systems start to deteriorate. When it comes to reproduction, for women, one factor is the quality of the eggs themselves. Freezing your eggs preserves the quality of a thirty-something year old egg to be reinstated in an older body – potentially allowing an easier non-natural birth down the road.

There are no guarantees, it’s preferable to get pregnant naturally, but it allows a certain level of assurance that should I need to undergo IVF, I’m doing so with my younger, healthier eggs. However, I reiterate, the complexities of pregnancy – from genetics, to health, to external factors – make it impossible to guarantee a success down the road.

How does it work?

It starts with a list of tests. All of which correlate your current health to the success of the procedure. Then you do a series of injections to optimize production of eggs in your ovaries. Then at just the right time, they knock you out, aspirate the eggs and put them on ice for safe keeping. It can be that simple. The process takes 2-3 weeks, and comes with a range of potential side effects similar to PMS. Statistics are still thin on some of the long term questions; How long can they stay frozen? How many of the extracted eggs are viable? What’s the likelihood of pregnancy? The list goes on.

So why do it?

It’s like baby insurance. It’s within reason to assume that I may naturally conceive for the next five years or more, but what about a second child? And maybe a third?

It lessens the pressure of defining my future based on my ability to have children.

I chose to blog about this publicly, because the things we don’t talk about tend to be the most important. If you’d like to talk more, reach out to me with a private message on Facebook or otherwise. I’m happy to share.

In the meantime I’ll be relaxing beachside with paella and sangria, working on my Spanish, and studying for the GMAT…

Adios!