Women who freeze their eggs over 40 are most likely not to have a baby, a study suggests.
Hollywood actress Sienna Miller revealed last year that she froze her eggs at age 40 to avoid the “existential threat” of her ticking biological clock.
But a new study suggests the chances of success are slim for women who freeze their eggs in their 40s, despite women in Britain undergoing the fashionable procedure until age 49.
A research team led by Imperial College London looked at all 373 women who had their eggs frozen for ten years at one of London’s largest private clinics, the Center for Reproductive and Genetic Health (CRGH).
About one in 10 women returned to thaw their eggs and tried to have a baby through IVF.
Hollywood actress Sienna Miller revealed last year that she froze her eggs at age 40 to avoid the ‘existential threat’ of her ticking biological clock
The chart, from the London Egg Bank and not affiliated with the new study, shows the number of IVF live births per embryo transfer by age group. It shows that success rates decline after age 40 in those who use their own eggs, and decline more gradually in those who use donor eggs
A new study by a research team led by Imperial College London suggests the chances of success are slim for women who freeze their eggs in their 40s. This is despite the fact that women in Britain undergo the fashionable procedure until the age of 49
Of those in their early or late 30s when they frozen their eggs, about a third were able to have a baby by using the eggs.
But zero percent of women who were 40 or older at the time of egg freezing had a baby when those who frozen their eggs between 2008 and 2018 were followed up.
Although two women got pregnant during this time after freezing their eggs past 40, they experienced miscarriages, which are much more common in older women.
The London clinic’s study is relatively small because, despite the popularity of egg freezing, few women go back to using their eggs — for reasons such as getting pregnant naturally or not meeting the right person to get one. to start a family.
But the new results echo similar research from two UK clinics, published in 2019, that looked at 129 women who had frozen their eggs for more than a decade and tried to use them to start a family.
This previous study found that only seven percent of women between the ages of 40 and 42 who frozen their eggs ended up with a baby or an ongoing pregnancy.
The new study concludes that women who freeze their eggs over the age of 40 are ‘unlikely’ to succeed when they try to have a baby.
Dr. Lorraine Kasaven, lead author of the study from Imperial College London, said: ‘It is important to advise women aged 40 or over who freeze eggs about the realistic expectation of poor outcomes, such as low birth rates, as this study shows.
“Although this was a small study, from a single center, only through 2018, it is important to understand that when women return to use their eggs, it is no guarantee that they will have a baby.”
When women freeze their eggs when they are younger, the eggs tend to be of better quality, making them more likely to lead to a pregnancy when women use them for IVF later in life.
Egg freezing is therefore becoming increasingly popular among single women, or women who are putting off motherhood to focus on their careers, despite the eye-watering £8,000 average cost of freezing and thawing eggs.
Miss Miller, who has a 10-year-old daughter, Marlowe, with her ex-partner, actor Tom Sturridge, told Elle magazine last year: “(I felt) pressure (about) kids, and should I have more, and why haven’t i, and so, that’s a really loud noise.’
After freezing her eggs, she said the “existential threat is gone.”
However, eggs that are frozen when women are over 40 are often of lower quality.
The new study, published in the journal Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, found that 9.7 percent of women at the CRGH clinic in London returned to use the eggs they had frozen – just over three and a half years after they were frozen. average.
In the decade between 2008 and 2018, the clinic saw a total of 36 women return to use their eggs.
However, all 11 IVF cycles attempted by women over 40 were unsuccessful.
That compared to a 37.5 percent success rate for women ages 36 to 39, who had 10 babies out of 24 attempts, and a 33 percent success rate for women ages 35 and younger, who had two babies out of six attempts.
Dr. Jara Ben Nagi, senior author and gynecologist consultant and specialist in reproductive medicine at CRGH, said: ‘Egg freezing helps women the most to have babies if they do it before the age of 36, as the chances of getting a baby is significantly reduced and the risk of miscarriage is also greater.’
The most common age for women to freeze their eggs is currently 38.
