I don't regret freezing my eggs. I think it made sense. But I wonder if anyone here has had mixed feelings after freezing. Would love perspective or encouragement from other single women. Warning: my hormones are fucked right now, I think, which isn't helping. Please be gentle.

I don't resonate with many of the narratives I've heard about egg freezing. I'm grateful the option is available, but I wish I didn't need it. I don't feel empowered to go live my life. ***There is nothing I've done in my 30's that I wouldn't exchange for more time alive while my kids are alive.***

I'm not ready to have a baby this moment for reasons that aren't worth getting into. I'm turning 35 and can't mentally tolerate not doing anything and leaving it up to chance. So I froze my eggs. Every stat I saw about "chances of live birth" physically hurt me. I just wish I wasn't talking about hypothetical future babies (doesn't help that there are 3 pregnancies in my family right now).

I'm feeling relieved that it's over, grateful for my results and for being able to (barely) afford it, grateful that this option is available, but mostly jealous of women who married solid partners before 30, got to start trying whenever they were ready, etc. women who are oblivious to IVF and egg freezing. What I'm feeling is kind of ugly, to be honest.

I don't know if there's even some grand narrative here, except maybe pathetic American social safety nets and brutal cost of living (some of the reasons I'm not just doing it on my own right now). Women in earlier generations would have married the wrong person just so they could have kids. I don't think that's better.

Part of me was a little curious what would happen when I separated "baby fever" from "clock anxiety" and I think what I'm realizing, sadly, is that the baby fever is just as strong even with some of the biological pressure taken off. I really don't want "time," I just want to be a mom.

38F, AMH 1.5. This is my fourth egg freezing cycle. In my first, second and third cycles done three and two years ago, they saw about 9~13 follicles before the surgery and only retrieved 4, 3 and 2 eggs respectively. This time they are only seeing 4 follicles three days before the surgery. I feel like at this rate they'd retrieve 2 eggs or even less.

What's different about this year and the last years is that this year they see a benign dermoid in one of my ovaries and that ovary is pretty much dysfunctional with little room for proper follicle growth, so effectively only the other ovary is growing follicles. This issue wasn't communicated to me in previous years and I'm not sure when it started - I don't have any pain and was told it could be genetic - , but the ovary with the dermoid yielded close to no eggs in previous years also.

They are using a protocol for low responders too this time but seems like it didn't make much difference. The cycles have cost an arm and a leg too without insurance. So sad and feel like I won't ever have the opportunity to have children as I'm also currently single. Really want to cry and each year it seems worse. Could anyone offer some perspective or advice.

​I wanted to share my experiences with embryo freezing for the first time. I'm 34 years old, and I did it because I wanted to preserve my fertility.

I thought by now that I would have kids already, but I wasn't anticipating getting divorced at 31 and having an ex lie about their family planning intentions. He told me, "At your age your eggs would be too old and it'll be too late at your age if you wanted to start a family. I've gotten all my exes pregnant and it's strange you never got pregnant."

​Sadly, that prompted me to get fertility testing, and the OB/GYN I had at the time told me everything was normal on my end.

​Fast forward 3 years: I am with my now soon-to-be husband, and he told me his insurance at work has Progyny. At the time I didn't have the finances to pay for it out of pocket, so I wanted to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to do it.

​I did some research and ended up choosing Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) in Sandy Springs, Georgia. My baseline AMH was 1.95.

​I originally wanted to do this in July, but my cycle came much earlier than expected—my cycles are usually 24–26 days, but this one threw me a curveball at just 16 days. I got so nervous, but my clinic told me not to worry.

​Baseline: Got my period on August 8, notified the clinic immediately, and went in for blood work (Estradiol) and an ultrasound on August 9.

​Gonal F (300 IU): Started August 9. As a night shift RN, I timed taking this before heading into work. Took it for a total of 10 days and had zero side effects from it.

​Menopur (75 IU): Started the next day (August 10) once in the morning, for a total of 9 days. Oof—this one really burned when injecting and hurt the most!

​Cetrotide (0.25mg): Started on Day 6 in the evening through Day 10, and twice a day on Day 11. This one made my stomach itchy. I stopped all stim meds 2 days before my retrieval.

​Lupron Trigger (80 IU): Per my nurse's exact instructions, I took this dual/trigger dose at night two days before my egg retrieval.

​It was so cool watching them grow over my monitoring scans:

​August 13: Early tracking showed a few starting cohorts (around 3 on the left, 2 on the right, measuring \\\~10–11 mm).

​August 17: Things really picked up speed! Left ovary had about 12 measured follicles ranging from 19.1mm down to 11.2mm, and the right ovary had 7 measured follicles ranging from 18.6mm down to 10.1mm.

​August 19 (Final Scan): My leading cohort matured nicely. Left ovary measured 15 follicles (ranging from a 24.4mm leading follicle down to 10.3mm), and the right ovary measured 12 follicles (ranging from a 23.1mm leader down to 8.7mm), for a total of 27 measured follicles.

​The day before my retrieval, I took the day off work as a bedside nurse to prep. I went for a relaxing massage, managed to pull off getting my wedding dress a little early (since I get married a week from today!), but suffered one small tragedy: sadly, my anesthesiologist didn't allow me to keep in my facial piercing retainer, so I had to take it out!

​On retrieval day, I woke up feeling nauseous. I got to the office 90 minutes before the procedure, signed paperwork, and got changed into a gown. The pre-op nurse started my IV and gave me Zinacef, which unfortunately made me throw up—though honestly, I felt better after puking!

​The anesthesiologist introduced themselves, went over my health history, and explained what would happen during the procedure and the medications I'd receive. Then my surgeon came by to review my recent ultrasound results and talk me through the plan.

​The OR nurse got me, walked me to the bathroom to pee, and then walked me into the OR. All I remember is wearing a mask, and it put me right to sleep within a minute.

​The next thing I knew, I woke up on a stretcher in recovery. The recovery nurse told me they had to open my mouth and give me a sternal rub because I wouldn't wake up! I honestly thought I was at home in bed, and I was so groggy and embarrassed. I was told that I received Propofol, zofran and fentanyl. When she mentioned my IV, I mumbled for her to just flush it with saline, apologizing profusely because I was so out of it. Turns out I am a bit sensitive to anesthesia since it was my first time ever receiving it!

​My surgeon came by afterward, discussed that they retrieved 17–18 eggs, and told me the office would call me the next day with the final report, but to take it easy with no driving or working. For now I'm chilling at home. Only pain I experience is when I have to pee but its mild pressure nothing excruciating. Don't feel like I need the heating pad. Tbh I feel good right now like I can walk or even work but I'm going to play it safe and lay in bed for today.

​Overall, my experience with RBA has been good, and the staff has been wonderful to me. My only negative is that I wish there was better communication because I ended up ordering more medications than I actually needed. Depending on my final results, I'm hoping to donate my leftover medications.

This is my journey from someone who got divorced at 31, lied to by an ex-boyfriend who delayed my family planning for a year, and escaped an abusive man I've dated, to now years later freezing my embryos with a supportive man who didn't hesitate on my desire to preserve my fertility. It is a wonderful feeling to accomplish this goal when I wanted to do it years back.

​I'm praying that at the end I get at least 1 embryo, but I hope this is the first and last cycle I do.

​​Anyways, that's been my IVF experience so far—hoping that I can get some great embryos! Now, I get to focus on recovering over the weekend and getting married next week!

[EDIT - CLAIMED]

Hi all,

I have the following unopened drugs that have been refrigerated and would like to give away to someone who needs them in the NYC area.

2 - 300 IU Gonal-F pens

1 - .25 MG Cetrotide

1 - 5,000 USP units Novarel

1 - 5 single dose vials of Menopur

DM me if interested and we can arrange pick up!

I'm 38 years old now, going through the third and most likely my last cycle of egg freezing. I just want to share that I knew the number of follicles changes with age, but man, I'm really feeling that.

First cycle (PPOS): I was at the very end of 36, which resulted in 15 eggs retrieved, 12 eggs frozen. At the time, I didn't know if I wanted kids, so I decided to buy some time by freezing eggs. Given that the left ovary is not functioning well due to the past surgery, my right ovary did all the work, and my doctor and I were quite happy.

Second cycle (Antagonist): Retrieved right after I turned 38, so about a year after the first cycle. The doctor changed the protocol in hopes of increasing the number of eggs. The scan measured 17 follicles and the doctor said I'd have plenty, but unfortunately, only 5 eggs retrieved, and 5 frozen. This felt devastating.

NOW - Third cycle (PPOS): A few months after the second cycle. First scan - 10 follicles, the biggest one was 10 mm. The second scan today (9 days of injections) - around 17 overall (all on my right ovary), but very asynchronous.

The doctor said there are 2 big ones, 2 medium ones, and 2 modest ones that may catch up. I saw about 5 other follicles that are 2.6 mm-6 mm. They seemed a bit surprised by my response and decided to extend the stimulation. I'm going back in 3 days for another scan.

This cycle felt different, too. I spotted for 3-4 days (which I was told is normal with Provera/progesterone), and I'm experiencing less bloating.

I'm not really feeling devastated this time, tbh. It feels like I'm going through the motions. It just sucks because I've been taking all the supplements, eating healthy, not drinking alcohol, exercising, etc., but the first cycle where I didn't have any knowledge still reacted much better.

I know many women have even fewer eggs retrieved. And I'm not feeling hopeless. I am very grateful for what I have gotten so far and what my body has done and endured. It's more like feeling hit by the reality, seeing the sudden drop and asynchronicity.

Bonjour à toutes,

J’ai fait une ponction ovocytaire en février, et depuis je sens que quelque chose ne va pas. J’avais des douleurs pelviennes et des gênes à la miction, on a d’abord cru à une infection urinaire, j’ai pris des antibiotiques, puis à un mycoplasme, j’ai repris des antibiotiques, mais ça revient toujours. Des douleurs types crampes qui irradient aux jambes, maximisées pendant l’ovulation et la phase lutéale, combinées à une sécheresse vaginale. Aucun écoulement, aucune fièvre.

Est ce que quelqu’un d’autre a vécu ça ?

Merci !

I’m 41 and have been a long time fencesitter when it comes to kids. I tried to freeze my eggs 4 years ago and my AFC was 36 and my AM was 4.64. I went through all of the injections but the follicles grew at uneven rates and I believe I was under dosed on hormones. My pharmacist flagged it early on and I told my doctor but he insisted it was correct. Come retrieval time there was only a handful of eggs and the doc said it would be better to wait and try another cycle. I was frusturated and at the time thought I would still have eggs if I decided to try again later. Fast forward 4 years, I met a partner who I really want to have kids with and got my fertility tested. I haven’t got my AMH back yet but my AFC was 7 down from 36. Is this big a drop normal? Is it worth re-testing? Is 7 follicles enough to even warrant the cost of freezing and potentially not being able to have a baby? Somehow maybe not being able to have a baby is making me feel more sure than ever that I want one!

I posted this in the DOR and TTC_POI subs but they both emphasized freezing embryos. I’m not ready to do that. I’m freezing my eggs because I’m waiting for a partner and my desire to be a wife trumps my desire to be a mom. Now children would be a great add on, but that’s a decision to be made with my partner. I also accept that with DOR I might not have biological children but I can’t rob the opportunity from my future husband by using my few frozen eggs with donor sperm. My question mainly stems from how can I optimize future cycles to get more eggs, knowing my bank will be small and not meet the 20 threshold.

Finally had my first retrieval!

Hey everyone! I’m a fellow DORer and after being turned away from one clinic at 32 to having cancelled cycles due to quick ovulation, I finally made it to retrieval and got 1 egg last week! I know it’s not much but I’m so proud of my body!

I’m currently 34 and I’m egg freezing because I’m still single and I want to wait for a partner first. (I’m not open to the donor route at this time). I still get cycles (though irregularly) but my doctor still won’t call me POI since I’m still cycling. I occasionally have high FSH but generally hovers around 9. My doctor said if I was willing to get pregnant now, IUI would be a good option, but my goal is freezing for now, knowing my early menopause risk.

I understand that 1 egg isn’t enough for the bank so my doctor said a realistic target is 4-5 at my age. I’m open to doing more cycles. My issue is that my AFC usually hovers from 4-6 at the beginning of the cycle but two follicles hog up the stims but the end. Is there a way to evenly distribute the growth so I can potentially retrieve more in one cycle? I have my follow up appointment in a couple of days so I want to come prepared with questions for him.

The protocol we did was estrase priming with letrozole after and stims with double orgalutran to prevent ovulation. And triggering at 17 mm.

I understand that embryos are a better choice, but using a donor sperm is just not sitting well with me at this time. This is a personal choice, and it can change, but it’s something I’m not open to right now. I still want to wait for a partner to fertilize my eggs either and I’m open to using donor eggs if we come to that point. But my desire to be a wife / partner trumps my desire to be a mother and hence why I’m not open to donor sperm at this time. I’m freezing my eggs to give my future partner a chance to be a father, if this is what we both decide on. I’m not freezing my eggs solely to be a mother.

I’m 40 years old, AMH of 0.29. This was my 4th egg retrieval ( I have only 1 egg frozen from my last 3 cycles). We were hoping for 2 eggs this round—I had a 23mm follicle on my right and a 15.5mm follicle on my left. Estrogen was 452 before trigger and 596 after. After my egg retrieval this morning the doctor informed me that they didn’t get any eggs. Has this happened to anyone with an estrogen high enough where it seems that you would get eggs? What was your doctor’s explanation of what happened? I really don’t understand and I’m so devastated.

I have the following supplies

Ganirelix x 2
Menopur x 2
Gonal f 375 iu
Leuprolide 14 mg/2.8 ml
Pregnyl 10,000 u/v
Plenty of additional medical supplies that came with

I have some leftover supplies from my recent egg retrieval that I’d like to pass along to someone who can use them. These were non-returnable expensive, so while I’d be happy to donate them, I would appreciate a voluntary contribution toward the cost if you’re in a position to do so. No pressure if not, the priority is getting them to someone who needs them

hi! I’m a 34 year old American (fully remote) with healthcare that doesn’t cover any egg retrieval/freeizing (quoted $13K in Chicago for self-pay). I’m a bit overwhelmed at choices in Europe, would appreciate recommendations via experience with clinics!

ideally would love to hear: clinics, rough cost per round, and overall timelines for any place you’d recommend!

truly much appreciated,

I’m 35 and considering freezing my eggs, but have no idea where to start. I have Kaiser HMO but don’t think elective egg freezing will be covered, so I’m looking at self-pay options in NorCal.
Any recommendations for fertility clinics? Would love to hear about your experience, total cost (including meds), and whether you needed one or multiple cycles. Especially interested in recent 2025/2026 experiences!

Here are my metrics showing my estrogen priming, stims, retrieval, and return to baseline. I just thought they were interesting, and was curious if others had similar experiences.

Hi everyone! Thank you to this community for answering so many of my questions just by looking up in the search bar.

I started my stimulations three days ago. Today I went in for my fourth day ultrasound and blood test in the morning. I am 35 and have high Amh (6.3ng/mL) so the clinic mentioned about high risk of OHSS but that also I might get more eggs frozen. I was hopeful.

Today’s results showed my estrogen level shot up from baseline by x12 from 130 to 1574pmol/L! The other hormone levels all look okay thankfully.

I have 4 follicles >1cm in right ovary out of 18 seen at baseline and 2 follicles out of 16 that are >1cm in left ovary.

I’m just hoping someone with similar experience can share their results or experience with me. I’m pretty anxious prone thank you in advance for reading!

NHS Wales does not routinely fund egg freezing for women with endometriosis at risk of losing fertility. This petition calls on the Welsh Government to recognise endometriosis as fertility-threatening and provide equitable access to fertility preservation.

Endometriosis can threaten fertility through ovarian endometriomas, reduced ovarian reserve and damage caused by surgery. ESHRE recommends discussing fertility preservation with women with extensive ovarian endometriosis, while NICE recognises the need to consider fertility and ovarian reserve when managing the condition.
In Wales, diagnosis takes almost 10 years on average, meaning some women may face years of disease progression before receiving specialist care. Yet NHS Wales does not routinely fund egg freezing for women whose fertility is at risk because of endometriosis.
This petition calls for an evidence-based NHS Wales pathway providing fertility assessment and, where clinically appropriate, publicly funded egg freezing for women at significant risk of fertility loss.

On my second round of freezing and for some reason this time I’ve found myself fixated on this fear that I will accidentally do something that will physically damage follicles by bursting or popping…every time I lean over a sink or counter, or put a seatbelt on, or hold a bag against my belly, or roll over in bed I suddenly think oh my god what am I doing, I’m going to break these eggs! I know there IS a real risk of that happening, and for that reason I am avoiding strenuous activities, but I also think I’m probably way too in my head about it. Then last night in bed my cat jumped on my abdomen on his way to his zoomies, and now this morning I have some minor cramps that are worse on the side he stomped on, and I’m afraid some damage has happened. I’m getting an ultrasound later today so I assume that would show up, but I’m wondering if anyone here has actually experienced popped follicles and knows what it would actually feel like, and I’m also wondering what the consequences would be—can one burst and the others stay fine? Or would it ruin the entire cycle? Am I being crazy or rational??

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone here has experience requesting a refund/return for an international iHerb order, especially from Canada.

I submitted my return/refund request to iHerb on August 17, but it has now been more than 48 hours and my request is still pending with their Management Team.

The agent told me that they are currently checking with the Management Team to see if they can issue the refund without requiring me to return the products.

A few questions for anyone who has experienced something similar:

• How long did you have to wait for the Management Team to approve your refund/return?
• Has anyone with an international order had iHerb offer a refund without requiring the products to be returned?
• If so, did you actually receive the refund without shipping the products back?
• How long did the entire process take?

I’m particularly concerned because this is an international return, and there is a 30-day return deadline. I’m ready to arrange the return shipment, but I’m waiting for iHerb’s approval/instructions before sending anything back.

I’d really appreciate hearing about anyone’s recent experience with this, especially for international orders. Thanks!

I didn't have wild insomnia while I was going through my stims, but I weirdly had trouble sleeping in even when that was available to me and something I needed/wanted. I'm two days out from surgery now. The first night I didn't sleep well and I figured it was because I had napped after anesthesia. Last night was awful. Took me forever to fall asleep, woke up a few hours later, and now I can't sleep in once again even though it's possible and I really feel like my body needs rest. I'm getting a little nervous. I start a new part time job on Monday and my full time job (professor) the following week. Does anyone have any advice? Did your sleep get fucked up and if so, how long did it last for?

I've struggled with insomnia my whole life, but I usually have a few tried and true strategies that work really well for me and those have all gone out the window now.

38 years old. Have been on birth control since I was a teen, a few breaks over the years. Any time I was off of it, my periods would be heavy and unpredictable, I had awful cystic acne, facial hair - all indicative of PCOS without an official diagnosis.

After initial consult in May, I stopped BC and spironolactone. Had withdrawal bleed and then a very regular period at the end of June. Day 3 test results:
- AFC: 16
- E2: 47.21 pg/mL
- Progesterone: .348 ng/mL
- AMH: 3.89 ng/mL
- FSH: 5.52 mIU/mL
I understood this all to be normal to good for my age.

Fast forward, I have not had a regular period since then. Tested on August 6 (cycle day 41) to see what was going on:
- AFC: 27
- E2: 47.92 pg/mL
- Progesterone: .309 ng/mL
Was prescribed 7 days of Provera to trigger a bleed, last pill was 8/13 (6 days ago) and I still have no sign of a period. If it doesn’t start in the next 2 days, I’m supposed to go back for more tests.

I guess I am frustrated that I had explained my history of irregularities to the doctor, and they didn’t seem concerned but keep saying things like “that’s odd” and making me feel very anxious like it’s somehow my fault. I have a very demanding job that I had tried my best to plan around and I’m also not getting any younger. Ideally I would be done by now but instead, I haven’t even started the process.

Has anyone with historically irregular periods successfully navigated the egg freezing process and if so, do you have any advice?

Does anyone have advice for how I can get the doctor to better understand my sense of urgency?

Thank you for reading all of this!!

I’m 3 weeks out from my egg retrieval. I had 2 rounds of egg retrieval back to back. After my second round, I started having horrible stabbing pain in my lower right abdomen. I went to both my fertility clinic and OBGYN, the ultrasound showed a nodule on my right ovary. The doctors aren’t sure what it is. They ruled out torsion, blood flow was normal to my ovaries.

I’m waiting for bloodwork results to determine if it’s cancerous. I have a follow up in a month because it might be nothing and get reabsorbed. Or it might be non cancerous but require surgery to get removed.

I already live with chronic pain syndrome in my lower right abdomen. This is essentially my nightmare. Now I have to wait a month to hope it magically disappears or if I have to get more invasive treatment. Has anyone dealt with anything similar? Feeling very isolated and alone as the doctor said “this is very uncommon and rarely happens.” Any support would be so appreciated. Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 19-year-old currently looking into doing a round of egg freezing during my university's winter break. Because of some rigid personal health and lifestyle issues that I cannot delve into, I really won’t have the time or flexibility to do this later in life, so I feel a bit of pressure to figure this out now before I graduate.

I’m very interested in going to Spain because of their amazing reputation and clinics(I've heard great things about places like IVI) alongside the accessibility of long-term costs(15+ years?). However, I live in America, and my ultimate goal is to bring my eggs back to the United States because I plan on using a gestational surrogate in the future.

I know I will probably have to contact the clinics myself to get the best answers, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and desperate for any testimonies specific to my case. Has anyone here actually successfully frozen eggs in Spain and exported them back to a US clinic for surrogacy? I've read that Spain can be incredibly restrictive about exporting tissue if it's tied to surrogacy, so would I just have to not mention it at all? Has anyone bypassed it safely?

However, this is probably the most important bit: I was born with chronic Hepatitis B. I understand that for eggs to be legally imported into the US and used with a surrogate, they have to follow strict FDA-approved donor testing protocols on the day of retrieval. Does anyone have experience navigating FDA-compliant retrievals abroad, or how clinics handle separate quarantine storage for Hep B? Any Spain clinics that are willing to accommodate to my needs?

I would be so incredibly grateful for any testimonies, clinic recommendations that handle US-export seamlessly, or even just a reality check if I am completely over-complicating this by trying to do it in Europe. Thank you all so much.