Should You Freeze Your Eggs in 2026? What the Latest Data Really Says

As we head into 2026, more women than ever are asking themselves a deeply personal and surprisingly common question: “Should I freeze my eggs?” In today’s solo episode, Jacqueline breaks down everything you need to know about egg freezing right now — including age-related success rates, how many eggs you actually need, what the process looks like, and what the emotional side of delayed motherhood really feels like.

Whether you’re considering freezing your eggs for peace of mind, navigating an uncertain timeline, or simply curious about what egg freezing in 2026 can offer, this episode is your warm, big-sister style guide to understanding your options.

Jacqueline also shares why this topic matters now more than ever and sets up an upcoming two-part story you won’t want to miss. Next week, she’s re-airing a powerful conversation with a woman who froze her eggs a few years ago — and in early January, you’ll hear her updated journey through donor sperm, IVF, and the arrival of her miracle baby boy.

If fertility, family planning, or delaying motherhood is on your mind, this episode will give you clarity, compassion, and truly helpful information as you head into the new year.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:

• Why egg freezing is trending as we enter 2026
• The biggest question: “Should I freeze my eggs?”
• How age impacts egg quality, quantity, and success rates
• What egg freezing success looks like in 2026 (by age group)
• How many eggs you actually need for a future pregnancy
• What the egg freezing process involves — step-by-step
• The real costs women should expect in 2026
• Common myths about egg freezing (and what’s actually true)
• The emotional side of delayed motherhood
• How this episode connects to next week’s re-air and the Season 7 premiere

Join Your Fertility Village — A supportive membership community for women navigating infertility, fertility preservation, and motherhood → https://your-fertility-village.mn.co/landing  

Follow along on Instagram → @motherhood_intended

Connect with other listeners → Motherhood Intended Podcast Community

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Year-End Framing
• 1:09 Why Egg Freezing Is Trending
• 3:51 Is Egg Freezing Right For You
• 6:00 Age, Quality, And Success Rates
• 9:18 How Many Eggs Do You Need
• 12:03 Step-By-Step Process Overview
• 14:08 Costs, Storage, And Benefits
• 16:05 Myths And Misconceptions
• 18:36 Emotional Realities And Reassurance
• 20:44 Mini-Series Preview And Community Invite
• 22:13 Founding Member Offer And Close

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Are you tired of scrolling your feed only to see the highlight reel version of motherhood? If so, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Motherhood Intended Podcast. I'm your host, Jaclyn Baird, and I'm a passionate mom here to support women like you in their unique journeys to and through motherhood. I have been through it all. We're gonna be talking about things like trying to conceive, infertility, IVF, surrogacy, mom life, and more. It's time to get real about what it takes to be a mom and come together in the fact that things don't always go as planned. So here we go. Hey friend, welcome back to Motherhood Intended. It's Jacqueline, and I am truly so glad you're here today. As we wrap up 2025 and head into 2026, this time of year naturally gets us thinking about our lives, our goals, our timelines, our families, or the families we hope to build someday. And one question I've been hearing everywhere lately, from listeners, from friends, from the women inside your fertility village, is should I freeze my eggs? And is it worth it? If you've ever had that thought, even for a second, then this episode is absolutely for you. We're diving into what egg freezing really looks like in 2026, who it helps most, what the latest data says about success rates, and the questions you should ask yourself before making the decision. And next week I'll be re-airing a listener favorite episode with my friend Allison, who chose to freeze her eggs a few years ago. Then, after a couple week break, and we come back in January for the new season, you'll hear her updated story and how egg freezing eventually led her to choosing donor sperm, going through IVF, and welcoming her beautiful baby boy just four months ago. It will truly be a full circle moment because this episode with Allison was literally like three years ago. I think it was my fourth episode of the entire podcast. And it's a good one because she opens up about her story and her decision to preserve her fertility by making the decision to freeze her eggs. In that episode, she'll talk about what the process looks like, and you get to hear all about her firsthand experience. And then again, like I said, with this updated three-year-later episode, we get to hear where that journey led her. And that is her beautiful son today. So today's conversation will be the perfect setup for this little mini-series we're doing. Consider this your like big sister guide to egg freezing as we step into a brand new year. Let's get into it. Okay, so why is egg freezing such a hot topic right now? Well, because more women than ever are delaying motherhood. Careers are taking longer to establish, dating takes longer, mental health and financial stability matter for living longer and honestly redefining what adulthood looks like. And here's the big one: people are finally talking openly about fertility. Finally, am I right? We're getting real about egg quality, age, timelines, and the fact that biology doesn't always match our life circumstances. It brings me so much joy to know that other people are talking about these topics now. And we've come such a long way over the years because I don't know about you, but 10 years ago, I didn't know anything about my body and especially didn't know anything about fertility or preserving my fertility or what those timelines necessarily looked like until I had an issue and had to not by choice, but learn more about my eggs and conceiving and all the things. And here's the big one. Egg freezing has become this insurance policy of sorts. It's not a guarantee, but it's a chance to keep the door open a little longer. And if you're wondering whether that option makes sense for you, you're definitely in the right place. So let's start with the most common question. Is egg freezing right for me? Here are a few things I want you to honestly consider. No guilt, no pressure, but definitely things I want you to consider. Do you want kids someday? Even if you're not ready now, it's hard to predict the future. It's hard to know what you might want, what your life might look like. But here's the thing, you don't actually have to know all of that. In your heart, if you think you might want kids someday, even if you're not ready now, consider that honestly. Are you unsure about your timeline because of your career or relationships or your health? You know, maybe your career is in a really awesome spot right now, or you want it to get to a certain point before you consider motherhood. Maybe you haven't met that person yet. Or do you have some health concerns that might kind of rock any kind of timeline? Consider that. Are you in your early, mid-30s and noticing time feels like it's moving quickly? I definitely know how that feels. Started trying to conceive at age 26, did IVF at 29, had my first child at 30, completed my family at 36, not the timeline I had in mind. And time absolutely moved very quickly, especially when I hit 30. I also want you to think about do you feel anxiety around age and egg quality? Is that something that's been on your mind and your heart a lot? And would having frozen eggs give you peace of mind? And here's the truth: you don't need a dramatic medical reason to freeze your eggs. Curiosity is honestly enough. Wanting options is enough. But, and this is important, egg freezing works best for certain age ranges. So let's talk about that. Because so many people are Googling, you know, well, should I freeze my eggs or what are my options? How does IVF work? And most people that I am seeing search these or ask me about them are already in their 30s. So let's talk about egg freezing and why it works best for certain age ranges. I'm gonna break this down in the clearest way possible. Egg freezing is about egg quality and egg quantity. And unfortunately, both naturally decline over time. So if you're under 35, this is the sweet spot. Egg quality is at its highest, and you typically get more eggs in a single cycle. If someone freezes 10 eggs and you're under the age of 35, the chance of a future baby is often around 60 to 70 percent. With 20 eggs, so you're under 35, you end up freezing 20 eggs, that chance of having a future baby can rise into the 85 to 90 percent range. Between the ages of 35 and 37, this is still a good window, but you should expect slightly fewer eggs and lower percentages. If you're between the age of 38 and 40 trying to freeze your eggs, this is possible, but success rates drop. Often 25 to 40 percent chance of success of having a future baby with a set of 10 frozen eggs. So that's 10 frozen eggs between the ages of 38 and 40 gives you a 25 to 40 percent chance of success. So most women in that age group, if you're in your upper 30s or you're approaching 40, you know, most women in this age group need more than one cycle. So that means like doing more than one egg retrieval to increase your chances of success. And if you're over the age of 40, uh egg freezing, unfortunately, but honestly, becomes less effective. It's not impossible, but odds decrease significantly. And many women at this age range ultimately choose donor eggs later. And here's the big truth egg freezing does not guarantee a baby. It simply gives you a better chance than waiting until later. Like many things we talk about on this podcast, whether it's IUIs, IVF, surrogacy, egg freezing, you know, all of these things, none of them guarantee a baby. But based on what you're doing, based on your age and your health, it will give you a better chance. And doing these things, especially freezing your eggs, given how much your age affects the outcome, this will simply just give you a better chance than waiting until later. So, how many eggs do you really need? This is one of the biggest questions women stress about, especially if you're thinking about doing this and you're like, okay, how many times am I going to have to do this? What should I aim for? Not that you can affect the outcome, but like, I know that's in your head if you're gonna think about freezing your eggs. You know, in your cycle, you're like, okay, I want the outcome to be at least this many eggs. And then when you get your results, you then can kind of determine, like, okay, do I need to do this again? Is this good enough? So that is a big question that women stress about. How many eggs do you really need? The answer, honestly, it depends on your age and what your goals are. So doctors often aim for 10 to 20 eggs under age 35. And if you're over age 35, they're hoping for 20 to 30 eggs. And multiple cycles are typically needed for women in their late 30s and early 40s. Why, you might ask? Because not every egg will survive the freeze thaw process. Not every egg becomes an embryo, and not every embryo in plants. So this is one thing that definitely wasn't on my radar. And I wasn't even, you know, freezing my eggs at the time. We were just trying to form embryos through IVF. I was 29 years old. When I had my egg retrieval and I got 20-something eggs, I was like, oh my gosh, we're gonna have so many options. Little did I know that number just dwindles down, right? All those eggs don't guarantee a baby. And then, of course, the eggs need to become embryos and the embryos need to survive. And then not every embryo implants. I want to say I had like 22 or 23 eggs retrieved, and I was 29 years old, and we ended up with eight embryos, and I did not genetically test them right away. We did not genetically test them until years later when we decided to do surrogacy. But at the end of it all, we had four healthy, normal embryos of the eight. One was mosaic, which basically just means that there wasn't enough information in the testing. So it could be a healthy embryo or it could not. Um, they were too abnormal, and then we did lose one in the freeze thaw process, meaning because we tested our embryos later on, they were frozen. So they had to be thawed, biopsied, and refroze. And we lost one in that process. So that was wild to me because at the beginning of the whole scenario, I was like, oh my gosh, wow, like one IVF cycle, and we have all these options. But then I learned how that all works. So, like I said, doctors will aim for 10 to 20 eggs under the age of 35 and 20 to 30 eggs if you are over the age of 35. And if you are in your late 30s and early 40s, multiple cycles are likely to achieve this. When you understand this, you can make decisions without panic, just information. I always say, just the more you know, it is such good information to have. Because why stress out? Why panic when you know the situation? So knowledge is power. And that being said, if the idea of egg freezing feels overwhelming, let's kind of simplify it a little bit. So here's the process step by step. First, you'll have an initial consult. You'll do labs like AMH, FSH, and an ultrasound to check the antral follicle count. And all of this is to see what your egg reserves look like and just look into all of that. So it's simple initial consult with these few labs. Number two, you will do medication and stimulation. So about eight to 12 days of hormone injections to help multiple eggs mature. This is the same process that is used at the beginning of IVF, right? You are using the medication, their injections of hormones to produce multiple eggs and allow multiple eggs to mature for retrieval. Number three, there will be monitoring. So several quick ultrasounds just to track the progress and see how everything's going. And lastly, it is retrieval day. This is a 20-minute procedure, but you are put under light anesthesia. Most women are home resting within an hour. From my experience leading up to the egg retrieval, that was the hardest part. I just remember feeling super bloated and just like not myself. Think about it. I mean, your ovaries are producing multiple eggs, and that's not typically the norm. After the retrieval, when my eggs are retrieved, I felt so much better. It was a quick procedure. And again, you're put under, so it's very brief, and then you're done. So yeah, it's a 20-minute procedure. And most women are at home resting within the hour. And next, of course, it's the freeze and store. So your eggs are flash frozen and stored, often for years. In my situation, we knew we would be doing a fresh transfer, but our other embryos were frozen. And one of them stayed frozen just for a year, because then we did another transfer to have my second son. And then the rest were frozen. Let's see, four more years. We found one more to do surrogacy and have my daughter Laura Lai. And we still have frozen embryos. We have four that are frozen, two that are abnormal, one that is normal and healthy, and one that is mosaic. And to be honest, I can do a whole nother episode on this topic of deciding what to do when you know your family's complete and you have frozen embryos still. Um, but I'll save that for another episode. But yeah, that's it. It's a lot emotionally, but truly, these five steps are actually pretty manageable. All right, so let's talk cost and real numbers for 2026. Use this as just like a frame of reference because this varies by city, but here's kind of a realistic range.$6,000 to$12,000 is the cost per retrieval cycle. Then you'll pay about$300 to$6,000 for medications and anywhere from$300 to$600 a year for storage. I will say that our storage over the years has gone up. Every year, the fee has gone up. But in this last year, our clinic did change it to where you can pay a monthly fee as opposed to just a yearly cost of storage. And for somebody who, you know, might be approaching the end of this journey or no longer need their frozen eggs or embryos, I think a monthly payment is helpful. I just remember for so many years, every September, we kind of had to like be like, all right, so we should just keep them frozen, right? Like, and now, of course, now we can stop freezing them at any point and make a new plan for our embryos. Currently, I have chosen to not deal with that right now. So we pay a monthly fee for embryos that we personally will likely not use, but we have a decision to make here soon. Some clinics offer financing or membership style plans, and some employers now cover egg freezing as a benefit, which is really awesome. That wasn't the case years ago, and I don't think it's the case anymore for my husband's company, but many employers are doing that now. So be sure to check your benefits. Now I would love to clear up a few things that women get wrong, some common misconceptions. So it's myth busting time because this will help you make a clearer decision. Myth number one: egg freezing guarantees a future baby. No, it increases options, but it doesn't guarantee outcomes. And honestly, that is the case for many family-building options. You know, just because you do IVF doesn't mean that is going to result in a baby. And just because you pursue surrogacy doesn't mean that that will work out. It will increase your chances. It's an educated plan, but nothing guarantees a baby. Myth number two, egg freezing means you'll definitely use the eggs. Okay, actually, many women end up conceiving naturally later. Like I mentioned before, it's kind of like an insurance plan. Depending on your situation and how old you are and whether you have a partner or deciding to pursue this on your own, or who knows how life's plans will work out. You may use the eggs, or you may end up just conceiving naturally later on. Different situation because it was embryos that I froze, not my eggs. However, I did end up getting pregnant naturally after using embryos twice and having two children via IVF. Of course, if you follow this podcast for a while now, you know I did unfortunately lose that pregnancy, but I got pregnant on my own. And I just never thought that was a possibility. And for other women, maybe you decide you're young and you haven't met your partner yet, or maybe you're busy in your career and you just want to freeze your eggs at an age that will give you the most success later on. So you have that insurance. And then maybe you meet your partner, or maybe plans change and you just end up conceiving naturally later on. It is all up to your plans and the way things shake out, but egg freezing does not mean you'll definitely use those eggs. Myth number three, you can freeze eggs at any age with the same results. Unfortunately, no. Age dramatically shapes outcomes, which honestly is why it was really important for me to record this episode for you because I really want everyone to have the information so you can make an educated decision. I don't want you to feel pressured into a decision, but I do want you to have the facts because you don't want you to wake up at 39 and then realize that your egg reserve is low and the chances aren't going to be great for you to have a baby with your genetics. So it's important that you have the information. One example of this, if you look it up, Jennifer Aniston over the last handful of years has been pretty honest about her journey and why she never became a mom. And, you know, her plans just didn't work out the way that she wanted it to. And then by the time she even understood or knew the options of freezing her eggs or fertility treatments, you know, it was too late for her. It was too late. She was past the point of having quality and quantity eggs. I used to always wonder, I'm like, why? Like it's not a money thing, but honestly, it's knowledge. Having the knowledge to make these decisions is so important. Okay, myth number four: egg freezing is giving up on natural conception. Like I mentioned before, not at all. It's simply just pausing fertility. It's not replacing it. So just because you decide to freeze your eggs does not mean that you are giving up on natural conception. It does not mean that you can't get pregnant on your own. All you're doing is pausing your fertility in time. So that way you have the best chance at an outcome later on should you need to use your frozen eggs. There is a lot of facts and stats in this episode, but let's talk about the emotional side because you have to know that you're not alone. This topic is so highly searched on Google. It is one of the most searched things. And it's because, like I said before, there are so many women in their 30s and 40s now, and motherhood is being delayed. And without the knowledge, you could wake up being 35, 40 and Googling, should I freeze my eggs? Is it too late? All the things. So if you're even thinking about egg freezing, I want you to hear this. You're not behind. Okay, you're not late and you're not wrong for wanting more time to make the right decision. Egg freezing is an option. It's not a requirement and it's a tool, not a judgment. Okay. And the women who explore it, these women, there are Thoughtful. They're brave, future focused, and they deserve clarity, not shame. So if no one has told you this yet, you're doing a great job of navigating complex choices. I hate that as women we even have to make these kinds of choices, and I wish that whenever we were ready on any timeline, we had the same ability at any age to get pregnant. Unfortunately, biology doesn't work that way. So just know that if no one has told you this, you're doing a great job navigating these complex choices. Because it's not easy. Next week, I am re-airing an earlier episode with a friend of mine, Allison, who chose to freeze her eggs years ago. This episode was like the fourth episode of Motherhood Intended that I ever recorded, and it was about three years ago. And in this episode, you'll hear her fears, her decisions, and what that experience was really like. She'll walk you through the process and what made her decide to do this. And after that, we're going to be taking a two-week break for the holidays, end of year, and then season seven will return on January 8th. In this new season, Alison will return with her updated story. I am so excited for you to hear her story three years later. It's a journey involving Donor Sperm, IVF, and her now four-month-old son. It is powerful, emotional, and incredibly inspiring. And as her friend, I am just so proud of her and the decisions she's made. And I so appreciate her sharing this with all of you. If egg freezing is something you've been thinking about, this little three-episode series is going to give you clarity, comfort, and real life perspective. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. If this episode resonated with you, or if you know someone who's considering freezing their eggs, please share it with them. Like I mentioned, knowledge is power. These conversations matter and they help us all feel a little less alone. If you're craving more support or community on your own fertility journey, your Fertility Village is always here for you. We have a couple weeks left to welcome in founding members at the$7 a month price. That's right, your membership,$7 a month. That's basically a Starbucks coffee, and you lock that in for five. So all of the value, all of the resources, the events, the webinars, the group meetups, everything that is going to be added over the next year and then some, you will always still only pay$7 a month. But that price will go up in the new year when the village officially launches. So join me now as a founding member. I would love to have you be on the ground floor of your fertility village. I'll see you back here next week. Until then, take a breath, take a pause, and of course, take care of yourself.