The success rate of egg freezing does not only depend on age. Doctors remind you to comprehensively evaluate ovarian inventory and personal planning.

2026/09/30 11:33

The appearance of the eggs on the petri dish after being retrieved. (Provided by Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital)

[Reporter Weng Yuhuang/New Taipei Report] Modern people are marrying and having children later and later, so many young women choose to freeze their eggs before the age of 30, hoping to preserve young eggs and improve the probability and quality of future pregnancy. However, doctors point out that egg freezing cannot only depend on age, but must also consider the reason for freezing eggs, ovarian egg inventory and personal fertility planning.

Ms. Chen, who married late and was single at the age of 41, went to the Reproductive Medicine Center of Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital for egg freezing. At that time, the estimated egg inventory was still ideal, and Ms. Chen obtained a total of 20 eggs, which was not only more than 5 to 10 obtained by women of the same age at one time, but also successfully frozen mature eggs 19 Six years later, Ms. Chen got married and returned to the hospital to thaw her eggs in preparation for pregnancy. After director Zhang Zhiyuan assisted her in egg fertilization, embryo culture and implantation, Ms. Chen became pregnant successfully and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Recently, she and her husband hoped to have a second child and returned to the Reproductive Medicine Center for evaluation.

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Zhang Zhiyuan pointed out that the live birth rate refers to the proportion of babies who are successfully delivered and returned home after embryo implantation. From the data in the domestic artificial reproduction results analysis report over the years, the live birth rate is not higher the younger you are. The data for the 20 to 30-year-old group fluctuates greatly among different ages. On the contrary, it is relatively stable from about 30 to 32 and 33 years old. It gradually decreases after the age of 34, and the decrease is more obvious after the age of 37 to 38.

Zhang Zhiyuan, director of the Reproductive Medicine Center of Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital. (Provided by Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital)

Zhang Zhiyuan said that the significance of freezing eggs is to preserve eggs from a younger age. When there is still a need for fertility as you grow older, the frozen eggs can be thawed, fertilized, cultivated into embryos, and then implanted into the mother's body. Therefore, the opportunity for future fertility and live birth can be preserved.

However, younger is not necessarily better when freezing eggs. If there are no special medical needs, there is no need to be overly anxious about missing the opportunity to have children. Generally speaking, the group of people who choose to freeze eggs can be roughly divided into those who want to preserve the opportunity for future fertility due to personal fertility planning;

Zhang Zhiyuan said that in addition to age factors and the need for medical egg freezing, ovarian inventory is also an important condition for evaluating egg freezing. Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) can be used clinically to estimate the amount of ovarian inventory, and then roughly estimate the number of eggs that can be obtained in one ovulation stimulation treatment.