'It’s such a huge weight off my mind': This is why I chose to freeze my eggs when I was 34
Anna Monaghan
Anna Monaghan, an IT manager from Blanchardstown in Dublin, was 34 when she froze her eggs.
A conversation with a doctor prompted her decision. “During an operation to remove my appendix when I was in my early 20s, the surgeon spotted signs of polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I was booked in for regular check-ups to keep an eye on that,” she says. “It was during one of those check-ups that the consultant asked me about my thoughts on having children.”
Monaghan had been single for a few years at that point. “I wanted children, so I’d decided that I’d give myself another few years to meet a man and do it on my own if a man didn’t come along,” she says.
Her consultant suggested egg freezing. “He said I’d have a better chance of success with younger eggs,” says Monaghan. “So I followed his advice and booked into a fertility clinic.”
A nurse took her medical history, and she underwent a series of blood tests and scans. “Everything looked good, so I was advised to come off birth control and come back in a few months,” she says.
She returned in January this year and was prescribed a combination of tablets and injections to stimulate her ovaries into producing eggs. She had scans every second day, and at the end of the two-week process, she froze 23 eggs.
“I thought I’d have to do two cycles to get that many, so I was delighted,” she says.
Monaghan found the process straightforward. “Basically, I had to take tablets, give myself injections, undergo a short procedure and then rest,” she says.
“The only side effect was that my short-term memory went during the medication stage, and I kept repeating myself. I was also worn out afterwards and had to take a few days to rest. But it wasn’t too much of an ordeal for the peace of mind it’s given me. I hope not to have to use my eggs but it’s great to know they’re there if I need them.”
- Research from a leading US fertility clinic has found that a woman's chance of a live birth from egg freezing is linked to her age at the time of retrieval. Irish medics say early to mid-30s is the ideal time to undergo the procedure but warn the results cannot be guaranteed. Read more about egg freezing here.
