As most people know, age impacts fertility in both men and women. No matter how you conceive, be it through fertility treatment such as IVF, IUI, or natural conception, the age of the woman, in particular, influences the outcome.
Fertility diminishes as women approach menopause, and the risk for chromosomal abnormalities goes up. That’s pretty much a given. However, the question remains just how heavily does a woman’s age impact pregnancy success? And moreover, how does age affect embryo freezing and IVF success rates?
First, The Biology
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have in their lifetime. The egg quantity numbers in the millions, but over the course of the next decade or so, the number of eggs will reduce significantly. By the time a girl hits puberty, her egg count is around 300,000.
As your menstrual cycle commences, you typically release one egg for fertilization each month at ovulation. Your body expels an unfertilized egg through your period. You’ll also lose immature eggs and unviable eggs each month. This is simply part of biology, and there really isn’t much you can do to prevent it.
Aging and Egg Quality
When you reach your 30s, your eggs begin to decline in number, and the closer you get to menopause, the more rapidly that decline happens. Your eggs not only fall off in number but also in quality. As egg quality decreases and your genetic material becomes damaged due to age, the chances for having a child with chromosomal abnormalities increase, as does your risk for miscarriage and stillbirth.
Aging impacts the quality of your eggs and, thus, your embryos. This negatively impacts your IVF success rates as well, as your eggs diminish in quantity and quality. That translates into a higher risk for complications such as chromosomal abnormalities and birth defects, lower implantation rates, increased risk for miscarriage, and lower live birth rates. After age 35, women may require more IVF cycles to achieve success.
Embryo Freezing and Age
When you opt to freeze your embryos, you go through a process that enables your ovaries to mature more than one egg at a time. This proves your chances for healthy, viable eggs that produce superior embryos.
Your doctor prescribes hormonal medication that encourages follicle development and maturation. You’re monitored throughout the cycle, and when ovulation is imminent, your doctor retrieves the mature eggs for fertilization, which they then send to the lab.
An embryologist then fertilizes your eggs using your partner’s sperm, or donor sperm if you’ve opted for that. Once the embryos develop, you may choose to have them tested using preimplantation genetic testing to rule out potential chromosomal abnormalities and genetic conditions.
How Age Affects IVF Success Rates
Age impacts the condition of your eggs, and that may lead to chromosomal abnormalities. That means fewer embryos are available for implantation. Statistically, according to data from the NIH, live birth rates per embryo transfer for women under 35 years of age are about 70%. Over 35-40 success rates for a live birth hover around 56%, but beginning around the age of 42, those successful birth rates come down dramatically to around 17%.
What You Can Do
Don’t despair, as you are not without some options to improve your embryo freezing and IVF success rates. If you’re under 35 and aren’t ready to start your family now, you can freeze your eggs for future use. If you have a partner with whom you wish to start a family, you may decide to create embryos right now. Remember, as your age goes up, your odds come down. The earlier your doctor retrieves your eggs, the better your success rates.
For those women who are closer to menopause or who have concerns about chromosomal abnormalities due to age, donor eggs improve their odds for a successful outcome. The clinic screens your donor and vets them medically, so you know the eggs come from a healthy young woman. You can opt to use a donor you know, or you can use eggs from an anonymous donor.
Improve Your Success Rates
For more information and to improve your success rates for embryo freezing, please talk to the experts at LA IVF. We devote ourselves to helping you grow your family. Together we’ll find the best way.
