Imagine being able to control your biological clock. Many women are trying to do just that by banking their eggs to be fertilized later, hoping to become moms after their chances of conceiving naturally have declined. While men can reproduce at any age, women don't have that luxury. The older they are, the more difficult it is to become pregnant — fertility begins to fall sharply after age 35. It is estimated that after age 40, a woman only has about a 10 percent chance of getting pregnant and having a healthy baby using her own eggs.

"Women are getting married later and delaying starting a family," says Frederick Licciardi, MD, associate professor of infertility at New York University. "And there is a growing interest in oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing."

The Procedure

Harvesting and freezing the eggs isn't too complicated: For 10 to 12 days, the woman has hormone injections to increase egg production. Once the eggs are mature, the doctor uses the size of the follicles and the estradiol (estrogen produced by the ovaries) levels to determine the best timing for the procedure to remove them. Using an ultrasonic probe with a needle at the end, the doctor drains fluid from the follicles containing the eggs and extracts them through the vagina, explains Dr. Licciardi. This takes about 30 minutes, and the woman is under light sedation, so she doesn't feel pain; she may feel mild discomfort immediately after she awakes, but this usually dissipates before she leaves the hospital or clinic.

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Once the eggs have been removed they are placed in cryoprotectant, a liquid-nitrogen substance used to preserve and freeze them. The number of eggs removed depends on the woman's age and how her ovaries respond to the medications. More than 20 is ideal; however, some women produce fewer eggs. Doctors would not expect a woman in her forties to come close to 20 eggs, although some lucky ones do.

But freezing is only the first step. When a woman is ready to become pregnant, the eggs need to be thawed and fertilized with partner or donor sperm. Just as with regular, non-frozen IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) cycles, the embryo(s) needs to be placed into the uterus, where it has to implant and grow — and it's never guaranteed that this will happen.

The Cost

This reproductive technology doesn't come cheap: The medication to stimulate ovulation, plus the processes of extracting and freezing the eggs cost approximately $10,000. Then there is an additional annual storage cost of about $400 — and usually none of this is covered by insurance. Since this technology is new, it's not offered everywhere in the country, but experts expect that in the near future it will be an option for all women nationwide, at a cheaper cost.

Who Does It

In the past, it was mostly women diagnosed with cancer who froze their eggs because the treatment they received to treat their disease could leave them infertile. But as the delicate technique has advanced, the demand for egg freezing has grown for healthy women too.

The best candidates for egg freezing are those younger than 41 years old — ideally under 39. But all women must have their ovaries assessed prior to treatment. "Pre-treatment screening should include an assessment of ‘ovarian reserve,' how the ovaries are doing relative to age," explains Nicole Noyes, MD, director of reproductive surgery at the New York University Fertility Center. "This is best accomplished with an early-cycle (day 2 or 3 of your period) blood test of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and estrogen (estradiol) — if the FSH is higher than desired, the chance for pregnancy from any eggs that are harvested is markedly diminished. An ultrasound evaluation of the ovaries can be helpful to rule out ovarian cysts or tumors, pelvic adhesions and [abnormalities]."