Egg freezing FAQs

Nope! Research suggests that egg freezing will not decrease your chances of a natural pregnancy in the future and that it won’t take eggs away from the rest of your ovarian reserve.

The egg freezing process captures and preserves eggs that would otherwise die off during each menstrual cycle. Hormone medications can help multiple eggs grow — to be frozen for the future — vs. the usual one egg per cycle.

Egg freezing (and donation) is considered a safe procedure. In a single egg freezing cycle, the risk of a serious adverse event is under 2.5%. Severe OHSS accounts for the majority of complications, occurring in 0.1-2% of cycles. The risk of other acute complications, including pelvic infection, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, or ovarian torsion, is small (<0.5%).

That being said, many women do experience minor side effects – like bloating, constipation, nausea – from the medications and egg retrieval. 

Read more about What are the Side Effects and Risks of Egg Freezing?

It depends on the type of birth control. Hormonal birth control methods work by regulating hormones in the body to prevent ovulation, while non-hormonal methods physically prevent sperm from reaching the egg or alter the environment in the uterus to prevent implantation. While it is possible to freeze your eggs while on various types of birth control, it depends on which one. 

Definitely okay: condoms, diaphragms

Generally okay: IUD, birth control implant

Need to stop: the pill, the patch, NuvaRing

Potential wait of three-six months: Depo-Provera

Of course, do not start or stop your current birth control regimen without talking to your doctor first.  

‍Read more about Egg Freezing and Birth Control

If you don’t have a partner or are not sure whether your current partner is the person you want to build a family with, freezing eggs keeps your options on the table. With Freeze by Co’s Split Program, you can independently preserve your fertility without spending a dollar for the next 10 years. 

If you have a partner and are confident that this is the person with whom you want to build a family, you may consider freezing embryos instead of eggs. Freezing embryos will allow you to know how many of those eggs were healthy enough to fertilize at the time of freezing. If, for example, your eggs lead to fewer viable embryos than you expected, you’ll have the chance to complete another cycle while your eggs are younger and healthier. 

That said, fertilization will add expenses to the process. Our Split program covers costs up until the retrieval, but you’ll have to pay an additional amount out of pocket to actually create and freeze the embryos. You will have the chance to discuss this with the doctor, and get specific clinic costs for fertilizing the eggs at time of the procedure.

Read more in Should I Freeze Eggs or Embryos?

If you’re thinking that this is a lot to go through alone, you’re absolutely right. That’s why we’ve prioritized community throughout this process. Not only is our team here for you every step of the way, but our online community connects you with other women starting their egg freezing cycles at the same time for peer support.

We have two programs for egg freezers:

The Split program, which offers women a chance to both freeze their own eggs and donate to a family who cannot conceive otherwise. If you qualify for the program, every expense associated with an egg freezing procedure — medications, supplements, travel if necessary, insurance, and 10 years of storage — are completely free of charge. We don’t even need a payment or credit card up front, as the family you match with covers all the expenses. Many donors want to complete multiple cycles in order to have more frozen eggs stored and in those cases, the expenses from both cycles are covered 100%. 

In our Keep program, you can freeze and store your eggs for your own future use, with lower prices on things like consultation fees and long-term storage and medication – as well as our team’s support and access to our community.

The benefits for of working with Cofertility include:

• Power of choice: Freeze your eggs more affordably or, if you qualify, freeze for free when you give half to a family who can’t otherwise conceive.
• Community: Our inclusive online spaces allow you to connect with others going through the process in our private online community.
• Compassion: We’ll always treat you with care, and our Split program gives you the opportunity to make someone’s family building dreams a reality.
• Data-driven: We provide you with trustworthy guidance and evidence-based research so you can make informed decisions about your fertility.
• Discounts: In our Keep program, we’ve developed partnerships with clinics, a storage facility, and lending providers to lighten the financial load of your egg freezing journey; you’ll also have direct access to our team throughout your entire egg freezing journey. And in our Split program, the entire experience is free.

Ready to learn about more affordable (even free!) egg freezing with Cofertility? Fill out this quick quiz to learn about our accessible egg freezing options and see if you qualify for our programs — it only takes one minute.

Unfortunately, for most of us, the best time to freeze our eggs is when we can least afford it. If you’re eligible for egg donation, our Split program enables you to freeze and store your eggs for up to 10 years entirely for free when you donate to a family who can’t otherwise conceive.

With our Keep program, where you keep all the eggs retrieved for your own future use, the cost will vary depending on the clinic you choose to work with. Payment is out of pocket, but we have partnerships that help lighten the financial load. In some markets, we have clinics that offer free or discounted consultations as well as exclusive cycle rates. We also partner with TMRW Life Sciences, a company that’s revolutionizing frozen egg storage and offers Cofertility members exclusive rates on either 5- or 10-year storage plans.

Alongside this, we’ve partnered with lenders to offer our members fertility financial resources through Gaia and Sunfish. Gaia partners with clinics across the country and offers flexible payment plans that cover the cost of egg freezing, medications, and storage. Gaia provides a free consultation call for Cofertility members. Sunfish has a marketplace of financial options for egg freezing at industry-low rates and waived application and membership fees for Cofertility members.

Nope! There is no fee to participate in our programs and be part of our community. This goes for both the Split and Keep programs. 

In our Split program, where you donate to another family, all your medical expenses (plus 10 years of storage!) are covered by that family.

If you pursue the Keep program, where you keep all the eggs retrieved, you will be responsible for any medical expenses associated with your egg freezing cycle. 

Unless you have fertility benefits through work, most health insurance plans don’t cover egg freezing. Your general health insurance may cover some of your screening and upfront blood work, so we suggest discussing it with the clinic you move forward with if you go through our Keep program. 

If you participate in our Split program, where you also donate eggs to a family, there are no costs to you associated with your retrieval or storage for up to 10 years.

During the freezing cycle, you’ll be required to avoid things like intense exercise, drug use, alcohol, and sex (remember: you might be going off your birth control and you’ll be extra fertile from those hormone injections). Other than those restrictions — which your clinic will tell you more about — you can go about your life as normal! You’ll need to take off work or school on the day of and potentially the day after your egg retrieval, though some women feel good enough to go about their days normally.

Read more in Do’s and Don’ts During Egg Freezing: Alcohol, Baths, Exercise, and More

The good news: most women can get back to their daily lives immediately following the retrieval procedure. You’ll probably want to wait about a week before returning to intense exercise or sex to let your ovaries heal and reduce any swelling, but your doctor will advise based on your unique situation. 

If you join our Split program, where you freeze your eggs for free when you donate to another family, you may need to travel. Travel commitments vary, with some members being able to complete the entire process local to them, while others travel for some or all of the process. If you are open to it, at most, you would be traveling twice – once for a day of screening, and once for the days leading up to the retrieval itself. Before you commit to moving forward, you’ll be asked to share your preference and availability for travel to ensure there are no surprises.

If you join our Keep program, where you freeze your eggs and keep them all for your future use, you’ll complete your cycle at the clinic of your choice.

The Split program offers members the opportunity to freeze their eggs at no cost when they donate eggs to a family who cannot conceive otherwise. If you qualify medically for egg donation, every expense associated with the egg freezing procedure — medications, supplements, travel if necessary, insurance, and 10 years of storage — are fully covered. We don’t even need a payment or credit card up front. If you want to complete multiple cycles to have more frozen eggs stored, all expenses are covered. 

Nope! For our Split program, in which you also donate eggs to another family, all of your office visits, screenings, medication, and travel expenses will be covered.

You won’t even need to put down your credit card or front any expenses. There is one exception to this rule: If you do need to travel for either your screening or retrieval, we expect you may incur some small incidental costs (e.g., meals, taxis). Keep track of those receipts and we’ll get you reimbursed. 

Visit match.cofertility.com/quiz to submit your intake quiz. When you submit your intake quiz, you’ll be notified which Cofertility programs you are pre-qualified for. If you are eligible to apply for our Split program, you’ll be able to submit your full application for the program in your Cofertility account. Once you submit your application, you’ll be notified via email about the status of your application and the next steps in the process.

Many types of families need egg donors to grow their family, including couples facing infertility, LGBTQ+ couples, cancer survivors, people with age-related fertility decline, and more. We welcome all types of intended parents to use our platform to find their donor match. If you have specific preferences for the type of families you would be comfortable matching with, we honor that input in facilitating matches, so your values are always part of the process.

Yes! We have options for how this works, depending on what’s important to you. Donors can always share any preferences they have, which we’re sure to honor in facilitating matches. Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have specific questions here, and we can help!

Yes. All matched intended parents complete a criminal background check facilitated by Cofertility — just as our Split Members do. We believe both parties deserve to feel safe and informed going into a match, and this is one of the ways we make that happen. This requirement is also reflected in the agreement you receive as part of the matching process.

For questions specific to your match, please reach out to your Member Advocate.

It varies. Some Split members match within a matter of days, while for others it can take much longer. Our goal is to help you match as soon as possible, and we find that members who put care into crafting a complete and authentic profile on our platform tend to match faster.

If at any point you decide the Split program isn’t the right fit, you are welcome to join our Keep program, where you can self-fund your egg freezing at a discounted rate, and start your egg freezing on your timeline.

As a human-centered platform, our goal is to honor all parties involved. Each relationship is unique and depends on both the desires of the Split member and family, as well as what’s best for any future donor-conceived children. If the eggs you donate lead to a child (and we hope they do!), your relationship with the parents and/or children can take on two forms:

• Disclosed: You exchange contact information and can communicate directly.
• Undisclosed: You do not exchange contact information and only communicate via Cofertility.

The scope and degree of communication (both during and post-match) is what both parties make of it and can be outlined in your legal agreement. Communication can range from sharing an annual holiday card to direct, regular communication between you and the donor-conceived child. We share more about what these relationships look like in practice in our article on disclosure status.  

Regardless of the relationship that you have with the family post-birth, we can facilitate a phone or video meeting in which you speak to the intended parents. This can be done with or without sharing names. With an undisclosed donation, you and the family can also choose to allow the donor-conceived child to receive your contact information when they turn a certain age (usually 18). This is called Open ID, an increasingly popular option.

Either way, it’s important to remember that many donor-conceived children grow up curious about their genetics and may want to reach out down the line. We want to ensure that you are aware of and open to that possibility before joining the Split program.

It is impossible to guarantee anonymity in egg donation. With widely available genetic testing and more state laws banning anonymous gamete donation, it’s increasingly likely that identity and shared genetics will be discovered. 

Given research on the benefits of parents being open with their children about being donor-conceived, we encourage intended parents (through our Family by Co platform) to be open to their children about their conception story. This means that, if the eggs you donate lead to a child (and we hope that they do!), that donor-conceived child may eventually want to reach out with their own questions. We want to be upfront that this could happen, even if you opt for an undisclosed match. This article includes more about our stance on disclosure.

At Cofertility, our Split program allows women to freeze their eggs for free by also donating to a family who can’t otherwise conceive. If you qualify for the program and choose to donate, every expense related to the egg freezing process—medications, supplements, travel (if necessary), insurance, and 10 years of storage—will be covered entirely. Many donors opt to complete two cycles in order to have more eggs frozen.

The number of eggs retrieved during an egg donation cycle can vary and is influenced by several factors, including your age, overall health, ovarian reserve, response to egg-freezing medication, and the quality of the clinic. Two key measures—Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels and antral follicle count (AFC)—help estimate your ovarian reserve and provide an approximation of how many eggs can be retrieved during a stimulated cycle.

Because AMH and AFC can help predict the number of eggs retrieved, we only accept donors into our Split program if we’re confident there will be enough eggs to share. This ensures both you and the recipient family have the best chance for success.

For more detailed information, check out our guide: “Your Definitive Guide to Egg Freezing: Risks, Costs, Success Rates, and More”.

Many of our Split Members are excited about completing multiple cycles, as it allows them to put away more eggs for their own future use in line with their personal goals and family-building timeline. ASRM guidelines recommend that an individual complete no more than six retrieval cycles, so you have the flexibility up to that point. Everyone’s path looks a little different, and we’re happy to help you explore your options. The one limitation is that we ensure Split members donate to no more than three families.

If you are completing one split cycle, all mature eggs will be divided evenly, at random, between you and the intended parents. If there is an odd number of eggs, the “additional” egg will go to the intended parents.

If you are completing two cycles, you may either complete two split cycles (as described above) or have a situation where you keep all of the eggs from one cycle and donate all of the eggs from the other cycle. In any case, doing two cycles means you’re able to store more eggs for your own future use.

In most cases, if you are not accepted to the Split program, where you freeze your eggs for free when you also donate to a family, you will not be able to re-apply. In instances where the disqualifying factor may be subject to change (e.g., your current BMI or nicotine usage), we’ll clearly indicate that to you and let you know what the re-application process looks like. You can also always join our Keep program, in which you can freeze and store 100% of your eggs for your own future use.

After your eggs are retrieved, they are put in a deep freeze (a process called vitrification). Your frozen eggs can then be stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in an embryology lab tied to the clinic or at TMRW Life Sciences biorepository facility in NYC. We’re excited to partner with TMRW as they’re revolutionizing how frozen eggs are stored. For the first time, TMRW enables frozen specimens to be digitally identified and tracked, safely managed through automated robotics, and remotely monitored around the clock. Regardless of where you do your egg freezing retrieval, we can work with the clinic to get the eggs safely shipped to TMRW’s facility. If you prefer to have your eggs stored at a different location, let us know and we’ll talk you through the options. 

You retain full ownership of your portion of frozen eggs and can access them at any time. As soon as your portion of the eggs are frozen, they’re yours, and we will help coordinate the process to send them to long-term storage in your name. When you’re ready to use them, you’ll need to contact the storage provider (we’ll make sure you have all the info) to have them shipped to a clinic of your choice, where they will then be thawed and fertilized to create embryos. After fertilization, the embryos can be transferred to your, your partner’s, or your surrogate’s uterus. Please note, if and when you fertilize your eggs to make embryos, you will be responsible for that expense.