Egg Freezing in Tennessee: How It Works, the Timeline & What to Expect
Whether you're focused on your career, haven't met the right partner, are facing a medical diagnosis, or simply want to keep your options open, egg freezing gives you a way to plan ahead. It's one of the most common questions we hear from patients across Nashville and Franklin: Can I preserve my fertility now and use it later? For a growing number of people, the answer is yes.
Here's an important way to think about it. When you freeze your eggs, you aren't freezing your ability to get pregnant at a future age — you're preserving the quality of your eggs as they are today. Because egg quality and quantity decline with age, the eggs you freeze at 32 stay biologically 32, even if you use them at 38. That's the core idea behind egg freezing, and understanding it is the first step in deciding whether it's right for you.
This guide walks through what egg freezing actually involves, the two-week timeline, how many eggs you might want to freeze, what success rates look like by age, and what it costs.
What is egg freezing?
Egg freezing — known medically as oocyte cryopreservation — is the process of retrieving a person's eggs, freezing them, and storing them for future use. When you're ready to try for a pregnancy, the eggs are thawed, fertilized in the lab, and the resulting embryo is transferred to the uterus.
Egg freezing is no longer considered experimental. In 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) removed the "experimental" label from the procedure after reviewing the science, and planned (elective) egg freezing is now an established, widely used fertility preservation option. The technology that made this possible is vitrification — an ultra-rapid "flash-freezing" method that cools eggs almost instantly and prevents the ice crystals that used to damage them during slower freezing. Vitrification produces high egg survival rates and, in younger patients, fertilization and pregnancy rates comparable to standard IVF using fresh eggs.
Who considers egg freezing?
People freeze their eggs for many reasons, which generally fall into two categories.
Planned (elective) egg freezing is a matter of forward planning before any medical need arises. You might consider it if you:
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Want to delay having children for career, educational, financial, or personal reasons
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Haven't found the right partner yet and want to preserve younger, healthier eggs
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Have a family history of early menopause or diminished ovarian reserve
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Simply want more control and flexibility over your reproductive timeline
Medically indicated egg freezing protects fertility that a health condition or its treatment might compromise. This includes people who:
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Are about to begin chemotherapy, radiation, or other treatments that can harm the ovaries (see our oncofertility services)
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Have conditions like endometriosis or a strong likelihood of diminished ovarian reserve
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Are undergoing gender-affirming care that may affect future fertility
If you're not sure which applies to you, that's exactly what an initial consultation is for.
How egg freezing works, step by step
The egg freezing process closely mirrors the first half of an IVF cycle. Here's what to expect.
1. Consultation and fertility testing. Your journey begins with a consultation and a few key tests, including an AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone) blood test and an antral follicle count via ultrasound. Together, these help your physician estimate your ovarian reserve and design a stimulation plan tailored to you.
2. Ovarian stimulation. For roughly 10 to 14 days, you'll give yourself daily hormone injections that encourage your ovaries to mature multiple eggs in a single cycle, rather than the single egg your body would normally release. Many patients are surprised to find the injections more manageable than expected.
3. Monitoring appointments. During stimulation, you'll come in for several monitoring appointments — quick visits with bloodwork and ultrasounds that let your care team track how your follicles are developing and fine-tune your medication.
4. Trigger shot. Once your follicles reach the right size, you'll take a final "trigger" injection that prepares the eggs for retrieval at a precisely timed moment.
5. Egg retrieval. About 36 hours after the trigger, you'll have your egg retrieval — a short outpatient procedure performed under light sedation, so you won't feel discomfort. Using ultrasound guidance, your physician collects the mature eggs through a thin needle. The procedure itself takes around 20 to 30 minutes, and most people rest for the remainder of the day and return to normal activities within a day or two.
6. Freezing and storage. In the lab, the mature eggs are immediately vitrified and moved to secure cryostorage, where they can remain safely frozen for years without a decline in quality. You can read about our cryostorage protocols.
The egg freezing timeline
From the start of your stimulation cycle to retrieval, egg freezing takes about two weeks. Factoring in your initial consultation and testing beforehand, most patients move from first appointment to frozen eggs within one to two months. Because the eggs are then stored, the timeline to using them is entirely up to you — there's no clock running once they're frozen.
How many eggs should I freeze?
There's no single answer, because it depends heavily on your age at the time of freezing. Younger eggs are more likely to be chromosomally normal, so fewer are needed to achieve a good chance of a future live birth.
Published modeling studies give a useful rule of thumb: to reach roughly a 75% chance of at least one live birth, a person freezing at about age 34 may need around 10 mature eggs, rising to about 20 mature eggs at 37, and substantially more by the early 40s. Because a single cycle may not yield that many eggs — especially at older ages — some patients choose to do more than one retrieval cycle to bank enough eggs. Your physician will give you a personalized target based on your ovarian reserve testing.
Egg freezing success rates by age
The single most important factor in egg freezing success is your age when you freeze, not your age when you use the eggs. This is why fertility specialists often encourage people who are seriously considering it not to wait.
In real-world outcome data, people who froze their eggs at 35 or younger have seen live birth rates around half or higher when they later used those eggs, while those who froze at 40 or older have seen rates closer to one in five. Modern vitrification also means most frozen eggs survive the thaw — survival rates are frequently reported around 90% in experienced labs.
It's important to be realistic: egg freezing improves your odds, but it is not a guarantee of a future baby. Not every egg survives thawing, not every egg fertilizes, and not every embryo leads to a pregnancy. Freezing eggs at a younger age and banking an adequate number are the two levers that most improve your chances.
Is egg freezing safe?
Egg freezing is considered safe, with well-understood risks similar to the early stages of IVF. The most notable is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) — but the risk is low in egg freezing because no embryo transfer happens at the end of the cycle. Other possible risks include medication side effects and the small risks associated with any minor procedure, such as bleeding or infection. Reassuringly, research to date has not shown an increase in birth defects or chromosomal abnormalities in babies born from frozen eggs compared with conventional IVF or the general population. Your care team will review your individual risk factors with you before you begin.
What happens when you're ready to use your eggs?
When you decide the time is right, your eggs are thawed and fertilized with sperm — typically using ICSI, where a single sperm is injected directly into each egg. The resulting embryos are cultured in the lab and one is transferred to your uterus, often as a frozen embryo transfer. You can learn more about how transfers work in our guide to fresh vs. frozen embryo transfer.
What does egg freezing cost in Tennessee?
Egg freezing typically involves a few components: the treatment cycle (monitoring, retrieval, and freezing), fertility medications, and ongoing annual storage fees. The current self-pay cost of an egg freezing cycle at TFI starts at $9,950, inclusive of ultrasounds, blood monitoring, retrieval, cryopreservation, and 1 year of storage. Please check our Fertility Costs page for the latest self-pay prices.
Because cost is one of the biggest factors in the decision, we help patients understand every option available to them. Explore our options for affording care, fertility financing, and insurance and benefits — and if you have fertility coverage through your employer, egg freezing may be partially or fully covered.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an age limit for egg freezing? This varies from clinic to clinic, but egg quality and quantity decline with age, so freezing earlier generally yields better results. Many clinics see the strongest outcomes when eggs are frozen in the late 20s to mid-30s. Your physician can assess your ovarian reserve and advise whether egg freezing makes sense for you now.
How long can frozen eggs be stored? Vitrified eggs can be stored for many years without a decline in quality. Studies have not shown that longer storage time reduces the chance of a successful pregnancy.
Does egg freezing hurt? The daily injections cause only minor discomfort for most people, and the retrieval is done under light sedation, so you won't feel it. Mild bloating or cramping for 1 - 2 weeks afterward is common.
Will freezing my eggs now affect my ability to get pregnant later naturally? No. Egg freezing uses eggs from a single cycle that your body would not have used to conceive naturally that month. It does not reduce your future egg supply or affect natural conception.
How many eggs will I get in one cycle? It varies by age and ovarian reserve. Some people bank enough eggs in one cycle; others do more than one retrieval to reach their target number. Your testing results will help set expectations.
Preserve your options with TFI
Egg freezing is one of the most empowering steps you can take for your future family — and the earlier you explore it, the more your future self may thank you. At Tennessee Fertility Institute, our board-certified reproductive endocrinologists and experienced embryology team guide you through every step, at our convenient Nashville and Franklin locations.
Ready to learn what egg freezing could look like for you? Request a consultation today!