Patients aged 41–44 produce on average 6–9 eggs suitable for freezing per stimulation cycle and require 2 cycles to bank 16 eggs. This is not much reduced from patients aged 37–40, who produce on average 8–10 eggs suitable for freezing per cycle and require 2 cycles to bank 16 eggs.
However, while egg freezing can be done at any age, it's best to start early in one's reproductive life so that more eggs can be frozen before they begin to decline in quality. This is why egg freezing in or around your 40s can be tricky.
According to the studies, women between 18 and 34 years of age only need two eggs to achieve 15% of live birth rate while those over 40 may need up to 15 eggs to have the same chances. While ovarian reserve means the amount of eggs that ovaries can produce, the quality of the eggs is directly related to the age.
Deciding how many eggs to freeze
Women 38 to 40 should freeze 30 mature eggs for a 75% chance of having at least one child. Women 40 to 42 should freeze 30 mature eggs for a 50% chance of having at least one child.
Yes it is possible, however as the number of eggs the body produces is reduced the number of eggs that can be extracted and frozen will be minimal. Pregnancy rates are lower from eggs frozen after the age of 35 so it is often recommended to freeze eggs much earlier.
Your age affects the health of your eggs. Women reach the peak of their fertility at around age 24. After this age, egg quality slowly deteriorates until around age 37, and then deteriorates more rapidly until about age 42. After roughly age 42, fertility for most women basically falls off a cliff.
There are many things you can do including taking CoQ10, eating a high-fat diet, and more that may significantly improve your ovarian environment and thus optimize your egg quality in your 40s.
Likelihood of pregnancy in your 40s with IVF
At an average, your chances of getting pregnant at 40 with Natural IVF* is 9%, whilst your chances with Mild IVF* are 20%. However, it is important to note that your chance of IVF success is dependent on your own specific circumstances.
Most people over 40 have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. But there are some things you need to think about. You'll want to be sure to get good antenatal care.
Women who are around 40 who are not ready to have children yet may choose egg freezing. However, the chances that the same woman can carry the pregnancy a few years later decrease as the woman gets older. Past the age of 45, women may want to choose gestational carriers to increase chances of success.
Irregular period cycle and difficulty conceiving
If you are facing issues conceiving and have not been able to conceive for a while now, it could be one of the signs of bad egg quality.
However, pregnancy success rates using your own eggs drops considerably for women over 40. In the U.S., the likelihood of achieving a live birth from one egg retrieval in women between ages 41-42 is less than 20% (http://sart.org); in women above age 42, the rate is less than 5%.
While egg quality is in steep decline for women after 40, fortunately, the uterine environment is usually good for much longer. The chronological age of your uterus does not impact implantation rates. This is one of the reasons we see IVF success with women over 40 using donor eggs and carrying to term.
In other words: women in their 20s will have mostly normal eggs, though they already have some abnormal ones. And women in their 40s will have mostly abnormal eggs—no matter how healthy a lifestyle they maintain.
At age 30 about 30% of eggs are chromosomally abnormal. By age 40 about 60% are abnormal and by 44 years old 90% are abnormal.
Women under 38 in our IVF program have acceptable live birth rates even with only 3 – 6 eggs, do better with more than 6 eggs, and do best with more than 10 eggs. Women 38-40 and 41-42 years old have low live birth rates with low egg numbers. Success rates are much better when relatively high egg numbers are obtained.
For women ages 35-37, the IVF success rate is 38.3% for live births using the patient's own eggs for a singleton (one child) birth. At ages 38-40, the percentage drops to 25.1%, and for 41-42, it is 12.7%.
If you're pregnant at 41, 43, or older, you may understandably worry about how your age may impact your pregnancy. Luckily, while the risks of complications are lower in your 20s and 30s, you can have a healthy pregnancy in your 40s, particularly if you are otherwise in good health and get regular prenatal care.
While fertility does decline naturally as we age, starting around age 30, it is possible to become pregnant without fertility treatments after age 40. (This is why we often recommend staying on birth control until menopause if pregnancy is undesired…if you are having periods, there is a chance you can get pregnant!)
How Many Eggs Does a Woman Have at 40? After the rapid decline in egg count starting around age 37, by the time a woman hits 40, their ovarian reserve is often estimated to be around 5-10,000.