Women who have not yet gotten married – very often religiously observant ones – or found a partner or girls who had cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy that can kill off their eggs – have high hopes of eventually getting pregnant. However, a meta-analysis of the efficiency of egg freezing has found that it decreases significantly if the eggs are frozen at a more advanced age. According to the new study led by physicians at the unit at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center (SZMC), one of two women who froze eggs at an age younger than 35 gave birth using them; and one of three women who froze eggs at the age of nine to 36 years gave succeeded in having a baby.
However, only about one if five women who froze eggs at the age of 40 and over gave birth with their help. As SZMC is a medical center run according to Jewish law, it is natural that observant Jewish women turn to its IVF unit to get their ova frozen and to use them to try to get pregnant. The clear and recommended conclusion of their research that encompasses all the information available in the world today is that it’s better to perform egg freezing before the age of 35.
Often, women without a partner who feel the “clock is ticking” have their eggs frozen (at their own expense) in their late 30s. The study, published in the prestigious journa under the title “Planned oocyte cryopreservation: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis” was led by Dr. Avi Tsafrir and Dr.
Ayala Hirsch from SZM.