What You Need to Know About Egg Freezing
By Chioma Umeha Women today are choosing to have children later in life than ever before. Egg freezing, technically known as oocyte cryopreservation, can enable a woman to delay pregnancy until a later stage. In 1980, the average American woman had her first baby at the age of 22. By 2000, that age had risen to almost 25, and in 2014, the average woman waited until the age of 26 to have her first child. In the United Kingdom, the number of women having children over the age of 40 years has tripled since 1980. In 2016, more British women over 40 years old gave birth than those younger than 20 years old. In the United States, 2.3 per cent of all births are to women aged 40 to 44 years. Society may be changing, but the biological realities of fertility remain the same. Most women enter menopause in their late 40s or early 50s. In the years before menopause, a woman’s fertility declines. Although the life experience of an older woman may mean she is well equipped t