Should All Women Freeze Their Eggs?

"Should all women freeze their eggs?" This question was posed by Marcelle Cedars, MD, during a Tuesday afternoon session at ACOG's 61st annual clinical meeting. In a session offering late-breaking news from SGO, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS), and the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI), Dr. Cedars pointed out that as of October 2012, ASRM no longer considers egg freezing experimental.

"Age trumps everything" when it comes to a woman's eggs, said Dr. Cedars, pointing out that egg quality drops dramatically after age 40. Women are becoming more aware of egg freezing technology and some may mistakenly consider it an "insurance policy" allowing them to delay childbearing and preserve their fertility.

Dr. Cedars brought up a May 3 Wall Street Journal article that generated a lot of talk at the conference: "Why I Froze My Eggs (and You Should Too)." The author proposes that using egg freezing in order to postpone childbearing could be a "powerful gender equalizer," allowing women to compete with men professionally rather than put off careers to have children while they are most fertile.

One attendee at Dr. Cedars' talk noted that since egg freezing is very expensive, it would put poorer women at a disadvantage. The author of the Wall Street Journal article spent nearly $50,000 to freeze 70 of her eggs. She called it "the best investment I have ever made."