US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has begun the method of freezing her eggs — and is protecting her followers up to date on social media.
In a sequence of Instagram tales this previous weekend, the 36-year-old “squad” member revealed she had been saving up for and considering the process for a while.
She stated she felt “empowered” to begin whereas Congress is on recess and thinks her choice is “badass.”
“It is a alternative that I’m making to really feel extra answerable for my life,” Ocasio-Cortez, who has been engaged to Riley Roberts since 2022, stated. “And if folks need to make assumptions about my choice, allow them to make these assumptions.”
Egg-harvesting could enable girls to extend their probabilities of a profitable being pregnant later in life, as girls’s egg high quality typically declines quickly of their mid-30s.
Ladies may freeze their eggs due to medical circumstances resembling most cancers, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts and PMOS, or earlier than present process therapies resembling chemotherapy that may injury fertility
However what do the probabilities of having a child from the method hinge on, and what can impression success charges?
What are the chances of profitable egg freezing?
The process entails taking unfertilized eggs from the ovaries, then storing them at subzero temperatures till the lady is able to have them fertilized and implanted — both in their very own uterus or in a surrogate.
Success charges rely closely on the individual’s age when the eggs have been frozen and the full variety of mature eggs saved.
A research printed in Fertility and Sterility discovered girls underneath the age of 40 who froze their eggs had rising success charges by way of being pregnant based mostly on the variety of eggs saved:
- Fewer than 10 eggs frozen: 58.3% success price.
- Between 10 and 14 eggs: 66.7% success price.
- Freezing 15 to 19 eggs: 67.9% success price.
- 20 or extra eggs: 81.8% success price.
However how a lot the method realistically will increase somebody’s probabilities of having youngsters depends upon a number of components, in accordance with Dr. Jennifer Blakemore, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at NYU Langone Well being.
“It does rely upon who you’re, what your objectives are and what you’ve got,” Blakemore beforehand instructed The Submit. “Not each egg results in a child.”
Eggs retrieved throughout egg freezing — which has similarities to the primary levels of IVF and entails hormone injections, common bloodwork and a minor surgical process — should survive a number of hurdles earlier than they may end up in a child.
And the numbers shrink at every step.
First, the eggs should survive being thawed. Analysis discovered that about 80% to 90% of eggs survive thawing, roughly three quarters get fertilized, lower than half change into blastocysts (an early stage of embryo improvement), and about 40% of contemporary embryo transfers lead to a reside beginning.
So if a lady freezes 20 mature eggs, 12 could fertilize and 7 would change into blastocysts. An embryo then nonetheless has to implant and develop right into a wholesome being pregnant.
Does age impression the method?
Age impacts each the quantity and high quality of eggs that may be retrieved.
The identical Fertility and Sterility research additionally discovered that the success price of a reside beginning dropped with age.
Those that froze at the least 20 eggs earlier than the age of 35 had an 88.9% probability of a reside beginning. The speed dropped to 80% for these between 35 and 37, and once more to 72.7% for ladies ages 38 to 40.
The optimum time to freeze eggs? The youthful, the higher.
“The youthful the egg is, the extra possible it’s to have success and the extra possible you’ll be able to have that egg over the course of your reproductive lifetime,” Blakemore stated. “Typically, we advocate within the later 20s or early 30s.”
Nonetheless, she careworn that ladies can bear the method at any time when they really feel prepared.
Has expertise improved in recent times?
Tens of 1000’s of girls bear egg freezing 12 months after 12 months, with deliberate cycles almost quadrupling from 4,153 in 2014 to 16,436 in 2021.
“The rise in reputation is essentially attributable to enhancements within the freezing expertise,” Dr. Tomer Singer, system chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwell Well being, beforehand instructed The Submit.
The most important advance has been vitrification, or flash-freezing, which largely changed older, slower freezing methods for the reason that mid-2000s. It’s drastically elevated the survival price of thawed eggs from 65% to 85%. Fertilization charges have been additionally larger with vitrification, at 79% versus 74% with gradual freezing.
How typically do folks have infants from frozen eggs?
Success charges of girls having infants from frozen eggs rely upon varied components, together with what number of eggs are retrieved and survive freezing and thawing, fertilize efficiently and grow to be embryos.
However research have discovered that many ladies don’t find yourself utilizing their frozen eggs in any respect.
A 2026 assessment discovered that after 10 years, 81% of girls who froze their eggs between the ages of 34 and 38 have been nonetheless protecting them in storage.
In the meantime, solely 7.6% had returned to thaw their eggs, though some had additionally transferred them elsewhere and should have used them at one other clinic.
There are many causes a lady could not use frozen eggs, together with that they conceive naturally or by means of IVF. They could additionally select to not have a child, or could not discover a accomplice to breed with.
