'I feel like a weight has been lifted': Younger Canadians are choosing to freeze their eggs. Here's what you should know

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Like many Canadians, Shania Bhopa has a lot she wants to accomplish before settling down and having kids. So when she started thinking about family planning, freezing her eggs felt like the best option to set herself up for the future.

“I think I’m going to be a better mom if I prioritize my dreams and goals now,” the 26-year-old said, adding that she wouldn’t want to feel unprepared before having a child. Bhopa froze her eggs last year, just before her 25th birthday. “I feel like a weight has been lifted…it’s great having that option for my future self and feeling less pressure.”

Egg freezing is becoming a more popular option for women like Bhopa who want to take advantage of their most fertile years and learn more about their fertility in general.

“I think it helps create your own roadmap,” said Bhopa. “And it can empower women who grew up with societal or cultural pressures to have kids at a certain time.”

For Fertility Awareness Week, Yahoo Canada spoke to a reproductive health expert on the benefits of freezing your eggs and how it can empower women to shape their futures.

What does freezing your eggs involve?

According to Pollin, a fertility clinic in Toronto, egg quality and quantity are optimal before the age of 35. Egg freezing is still an option for those over 35, but you might need to freeze more eggs.

Dr. Kim Garbedian, the medical director at Pollin said freezing your eggs is about a two-week time commitment or approximately one menstrual cycle.

Patients will usually begin hormone injections after they get their period, which will stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. Garbedian said that the daily injections are quite easy for patients to do themselves. During this time, a patient will be monitored through bloodwork and ultrasounds.

Garbedian said it's common for patients to visit the clinic five times during a 14 day period, however the number of visits varies per person.

“You might not be there that much, but I do think patients think about egg freezing all day. So it really does take up a lot of your mental space," Garbedian said.

Patients are under conscious sedation during egg retrieval, meaning they're medicated but awake during the 15 to 20-minute process. Some people might experience cramping for up to three days after the procedure. Eggs are frozen the same day and afterwards, doctors will tell you how many eggs were retrieved and you’ll be informed about how many were viable to freeze.

Though the reasons why someone might choose to freeze their eggs can vary, some benefits could be to preserve egg quality or for medical reasons like undergoing chemotherapy or pelvic surgery. Garbedian says thanks to social media, it's becoming more common to see people choose to freeze their eggs at an earlier age to have a "sense of reproductive autonomy" or "an option for themselves later in life."

How much does it cost to freeze your eggs in Canada?

Depending on the clinic and someone’s fertility benefits (coverage can be rare), Garbedian said it usually costs somewhere between $7,000 to $10,000 for one cycle. “There’s also a yearly storage fee as well,” said Garbedian. “So there’s that ongoing fee that people have to consider.”

According to Garbedian, the goal is to get about 15 to 20 eggs. While some people can produce that many in one cycle, it may take others two or three. The initial ovarian reserve tests can help predict how many cycles a patient might need to achieve optimal results.

“I think the biggest thing about egg freezing is to go into it and learn as much as you can about your ovaries and talk to your fertility doctor about what to expect. So how many cycles will you need, how many pregnancies do you think you'll have and do they think those cycles will yield,” said Garbedian. “It’s a lot of personal counselling.”

According to the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, 1 in 6 Canadians struggle with their fertility, or experience infertility. Garbedian said she would like to see people when they’re about 25 so they can learn more about their fertility and when it begins to decline.

“Most people think fertility declines in your 40s but we actually see it start in your 30s," she explained.

Although social media has helped with educating people about how conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can impact fertility, Garbedian said there's still some "miscommunication between doctors and patients."

"When we say one of the consequences of PCOS is infertility, what we mean is, you might need to see a fertility doctor," she explained.

Garbedian also wants people to know that getting your fertility tested in Canada is cost-effective and accessible. A blood test to check your anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) can give someone an idea of their egg count and an ultrasound can help doctors and patients understand someone’s anatomy and look at the amount of eggs. Both of these tests are referred to as ovarian reserve tests.

“I think the most important message is to get your reproductive health checked,” said Garbedian. “Freezing your eggs isn't for everybody, especially because it is a huge physical, emotional financial commitment for something that isn't 100 per cent. So sometimes just giving people fertility counselling is what people need.”

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