More women are freezing their eggs than ever, but many aren’t returning to use them, study finds

More women are freezing their eggs, but few appear to be returning to use them, a new study found.

The study was led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and published last month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. It found that the number of planned, elective egg freezing cycles increased exponentially between 2014 and 2021, jumping from 4,153 to 16,436.

Notably, women increasingly chose to freeze their eggs at younger ages, the study found. In 2014, the average age for egg freezing was 36. Seven years later, in 2021, that had dropped to 34.9 years of age.

“This is the largest U.S. study to date on elective fertility preservation, revealing insights into the clear shift in reproductive behavior as more women delay childbearing to pursue educatio