How I Did It: Riss on Egg Freezing
In our series How I Did It, friends of Crayon share their personal stories about how they tackled one aspect of their personal finances. While their journey is specific to their situation, we hope it inspires you to take action. Just keep in mind that, as always, Crayon and our guests are not providing financial advice.
Next up: Clarissa (Riss) Hirst. Riss is the Head of Content, Communications and Marketing for the Financial Services Council, the industry body for the financial services industry in New Zealand. Riss recently went through the egg-freezing process and kindly agreed to share her story with Crayon.
Hello Riss! Can you start by telling us what egg freezing is?
It’s a process where you collect eggs from your ovaries and freeze them with the intention of potentially using them to have a child at some point in the future. People do it for a number of reasons, but for me personally, it's a plan B, and I did it for peace of mind.
What led you to decide to freeze your eggs?
It took me a couple of years to decide to freeze my eggs. When I was 30 years old, two friends - who don’t know each other - separately shared their fertility journey with me. They were roughly the same age, in a long-term relationship, and didn't want children at that particular point in their lives but had decided to find out what their fertility was like. They took an Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH) test, which measures your ovarian reserve (i.e. how many eggs you are likely to get in an IVF cycle). They both received results that indicated their ovarian reserves were quite low compared to other women their age.
Listening to their experiences was very impactful, and things percolated in my mind for some time. Around the time I turned 32, I decided to take the AMH test. I wasn’t ready to have a baby in the near term, but it’s an option I’d like to have in the future, and I wanted the knowledge to make informed decisions.
My doctor described my results (an AMH of 7.5) as “frustrating”! I wasn’t in the green zone (high ovarian reserve), but I wasn’t in the red zone either (very low ovarian reserve). I was smack bang in the orange zone, well below average and in the lowest 20% of women in my age group. Based on that result, the doctor explained that if I were to wait five years to have a child, then my chances of conceiving one would be pretty low. That really put things into perspective for me - and that’s why I decided to look into egg freezing as a backup plan.
What did you do next?
First, I did a lot of my own research, and I tried to get as much information as I could from other people who had done it. I read blogs, watched videos, listened to podcasts and spent hours on Google.
Then I went onto websites of organisations and companies that offer egg-freezing and IVF services to read their material. By this point, I felt like I understood, more or less, what it was all about.
Many of these companies offer a free initial 15-minute consultation with a nurse. The nurse explains how it works, and you can ask them questions. I booked consults with a few places to get as much information as possible and compare different options. I also looked at doing it in New Zealand and Australia to compare the costs [Riss is an Aussie].
Once I decided on a company, I booked an initial consultation with the doctor. They walked me through what egg freezing would involve and all my alternatives so I could figure out what would be best for me.
What pros and cons did you consider when deciding whether to do it?
I'm a big fan of a pros and cons list. For me, the main con of egg freezing was the cost. It’s very expensive, and I didn't have the money lying around [more on costs later].
Also, it's not a guarantee, which means you could be paying thousands of dollars for something that might not work. This can be for a number of reasons - you might go through the procedure, and they aren't able to collect any eggs; or they collect a certain number of eggs, but they're not able to freeze them; or the eggs might not survive the thawing process when you go to use them, and so on. It's a gamble, and that’s something medical professionals make clear upfront. You have to weigh up the risks and costs.
For me, the pro was feeling that I was taking control. As women, we are forced to decide whether we want a family because of biology - and that’s frustrating. Egg freezing was a way for me to take back some control and give myself an option and a backup. Having 32-year-old eggs is better than having 37-year-old eggs.
Once you decided to pull the trigger, what was the process of freezing your eggs?
Egg freezing involves all the steps of an IVF cycle up to and including egg collection, and it's a very involved process. There’s a lot to think about, and there’s a lot of planning. But you also can't plan too much because the dates all revolve around your menstrual cycle. Unfortunately, you can’t pick the date you want to freeze your eggs on.
You give them the month in which you’d like to freeze your eggs, and they set you up in their system. A month before your target month, you start communication with the nurse about your period, and at a certain point, you’re required to start self-administering daily injections of medication. You might have a couple of scans each cycle, the timing of which depends on how your body reacts to the medication.
Once they think your body is ready, you’re booked in for a specific time to have the procedure. They advise that you take a day off work and that a support person drives you home.
What are the direct financial costs?
My total cost for two cycles was $19,660. I broke it down as follows:
AMH test: $85
First appointment with the nurse: free
First appointment with the doctor: $320
First cycle: $10,575
Second cycle: $8,680
The cost of each cycle was all-inclusive of the medication, the procedure and the follow-up doctor's appointment.
The company that I went through offered a discount of 18% if I did another cycle within three months of my first cycle (to gather more eggs). If I'd done a third cycle, then that would have been discounted again.
What are the ongoing costs and anticipated future costs?
The only ongoing cost is storage. The company I went with offered the first six months as part of the cycle package and then two payment options thereafter: $160 per six months (which is useful if you want to use the eggs in the near term) or $1,695 upfront for ten years of storage.
If I decide to use the eggs in an IVF process, then it could cost me anywhere between about $11,000 to $15,000 per IVF round, possibly more. It’s hard to estimate the exact cost because it depends on many factors, for example, whether you’re using a partner’s sperm or donor sperm, what type of medication you need for the IVF cycle etc.
Are there any costs if you decide not to use the eggs?
If you don’t want to use your eggs, you can request for them to be destroyed, donate them to research, or donate them to someone else. There is no cost involved.
When I started the process, I filled out a consent form that specified my wishes if I were to die or if I reached the end of the storage period and they couldn't get a hold of me, to confirm what I wanted to do with them. This is standard procedure.
How did you fund it? And is there any government funding available?
Egg freezing is not publicly funded for most people. There are exceptions, for example, if you have a terminal illness.
I didn't meet the criteria, so I paid out of pocket. You have to pay each cost upfront. For the cycles, I had to pay for each one in full when I went to pick up the medications.
Once I decided egg freezing was something I wanted to do, I set up an automated payment to transfer $450 out of every fortnightly paycheck into a high-interest savings account. I didn't want to invest the money because I knew I wanted to use it within a year, and I didn’t want to be at the mercy of market fluctuations.
As I got closer to the time, I became more aggressive with saving. For example, if I had any spare money left over, I’d funnel it into that account. I had enough to cover the first cycle but not for my second cycle. I ended up eating into my emergency fund to cover the shortfall, which I don’t suggest doing if you can avoid it.
Not long before my second cycle, I discovered that I would shortly be receiving a very unexpected windfall from a relative, which is why I was okay with temporarily dipping into my emergency fund. Once that came through, I topped up my emergency fund again. I recommend saving up so you've got that money there beforehand because we can't rely on stuff like that.
Were there any hidden or unexpected indirect costs?
For me, there were not too many hidden costs. The main ones were:
Prenatal vitamins
A day off work to have the procedure. I did my first cycle on a weekend, but my second cycle fell on a Monday, so I took a day of sick leave.
The whole process happens over many weeks, and because of the medication, you can have quite dramatic mood swings. Mentally and emotionally, it’s a roller coaster ride. You might need to take a day off work for your mental well-being rather than your physical health. Also, I felt really tired for a week or two after the procedures. I didn’t take any time off work, but I definitely could have benefited from a bit of R&R. The reality is that you're not quite yourself for a little while.
What do you wish you had known earlier?
I wish I had known about egg freezing earlier because the earlier you do it, the better your chances. You will have a higher chance of eggs from a 25-year-old becoming a baby than eggs from a 32-year-old.
I only learned about it when I was well into my late 20s. I'm really grateful my friends talked to me about their experience because otherwise, I would have had no idea.
Any words of wisdom for someone who is considering egg freezing?
Here are my best tips:
Do as much reading and research as you can just - listen to podcasts, talk to people who've done it and take advantage of the free consultations most egg-freezing companies offer.
When it comes to costs, make sure you compare apples with apples. The company I went with initially looked much more expensive and I almost wrote them off. However, once I started talking to different companies, I realised they price differently. For example, some quote an all-inclusive package, while others quote the medication separately from the procedure. Always ask what's included in the price and what else you will have to pay for. Also, check which companies offer a discount if you do multiple cycles with them.
Go in with low expectations - expect that they might not be able to harvest any eggs even if you're paying all this money. If you have high expectations or a certain number of eggs in mind, you could be setting yourself up for disappointment. I managed to freeze nine eggs from my first cycle and a whopping 25 in my second (which is not considered normal), so be aware that each cycle you do can fluctuate in terms of success rate as well.
If it’s possible, pick a month when you’re going to have less stress at work or in your personal life. The mood swings are real and had it been a really stressful time for me it would have been very challenging.
If you feel comfortable, tell someone you trust at work that you’re doing egg freezing because you're not going to be your usual self for a little while, and you might need to take some time off work. I told most of my team so that they knew what was happening.
What resources did you find particularly helpful when you were looking into egg freezing?
This online article on Capsule, along with a number of blogs from NZ and around the world written by women who froze their eggs. Reading and learning about others’ experiences was really helpful and gave me a more personal perspective - a good complement to the available medical information.
NZ-focused fertility resources from Fertility Associates, Repromed and Fertility NZ were also helpful.
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Riss!
You’re welcome. I benefited from other people talking about this with me. If someone reads this and it prompts them to consider egg freezing, then I’d be delighted. I now have a total of 34 eggs in the bank should I decide to use them down the track, which has given me a little more time to enjoy life without this big fertility decision looming over me.
Now for the important legal part: The information we provide is general and not regulated financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. Please seek independent legal, financial, tax or other advice in considering whether the content in this article is appropriate for your goals, situation or needs. The information in this article is current as at 18 January 2023.
