Deciding to freeze your eggs is a significant and personal choice, providing a strategic approach to safeguarding reproductive potential for the future. Individuals may opt for egg freezing due to various factors, including medical treatments that may impact fertility, a desire to delay family planning for personal or career reasons, or other circumstances influencing fertility.
Understanding the medical procedures involved is crucial. Here’s a detailed guide to the various stages of the egg freezing process:
1. Initial Consultation: Your journey begins with an initial consultation with healthcare professionals. This serves as an opportunity for you to discuss your fertility preservation goals, ask questions, and gain insights into the entire process.
2. Assessments: Comprehensive health assessments follow the initial consultation. This includes in-depth evaluations such as hormone assessments and reproductive health diagnostics. Additionally, you’ll be briefed on the associated costs.
3. Hormonal Stimulation: Once assessments are complete, the next step involves hormonal stimulation. You will be administered hormonal medications to stimulate the ovaries. The progress is closely monitored through regular ultrasound and blood tests, ensuring optimal follicular development.
4. Oocyte Retrieval: The surgical procedure of oocyte retrieval is conducted under light anesthesia, a thin needle guided by ultrasound is used to retrieve mature eggs from the ovaries. This step is critical in securing viable eggs for your future use.
5. Post-Procedure Monitoring: Following the oocyte retrieval, you enter a phase of post-procedure monitoring. Additionally, the quality and quantity of the retrieved eggs are carefully assessed. The healthcare team will discuss potential future use and outlines family-building options.
The decision to freeze eggs is accompanied by financial considerations that can be substantial. The cost ranges from SGD$ 10,000 to SGD$ 24,000, encompasses various elements such as consultation fees, medical assessments, hormonal medications, and the actual egg retrieval procedure. A comprehensive understanding of these costs, along with awareness of potential additional expenses, is crucial for those contemplating or undergoing the egg freezing process.
The following table is a quick summary of costs at each stage of this journey.
| Type of Expenses | Includes | Cost Range (SGD) |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Consultation | Fertility test & medical history review | SGD $300 – 800 |
| Ovarian Stimulation | Medication (birth control and hormonal medication)
Follow-up Consultation, Bloodwork & Ultrasound |
SGD $3,000 – 8,000 |
| Egg Retrieval | Specialist fees, facility fees, anaesthesia and embryo lab fees (identification, vitrification & culture/sperm/hatching for embryos) | SGD$5,000 – 12,000 |
| Initial oocyte storage | SGD$1,000 – 2,000 | |
| Oocyte storage | Annual recurring fees | SGD$600 – 1,000 |
| Total cost of egg freezing cycle | SGD$10,000 – 24,000 |
Anna Haotanto is the Founder of Zora Health and a passionate advocate for women’s empowerment. Anna’s personal experiences with egg-freezing, PCOS and the challenges of fertility have fueled her mission to provide high-quality information, financing, and support to help women and couples navigate their fertility journeys with confidence. She is also recognised for her achievements in finance, entrepreneurship, and women’s empowerment, and has been featured in various media outlets. You can also follow her on Linkedin or Instagram.
