How Much Does Egg Freezing Cost, and Does It Work?

Egg freezing is often described as buying time. The more accurate description is buying chances: a number of eggs, frozen at today’s age, that may or may not lead to a baby later. Whether that is worth the money depends on the price, how many eggs you can freeze, your age and how likely you are to use them. This guide uses published figures from FertilityIQ, ASRM, SART and a large clinic study, each dated, so you can judge a quote.

How much does egg freezing cost?

FertilityIQ reports that egg freezing can cost more than $15,000 per cycle in the US, and that most women undergo two cycles.¹ It breaks down the total roughly as treatment 70%, storage 20% and drugs 10%.¹ Prices vary by clinic and region and change over time, so treat these as benchmarks.

ASRM groups the costs into three phases:²

The third phase is easy to forget. Using frozen eggs means an IVF cycle: the eggs are thawed, fertilized in the lab and an embryo is transferred. FertilityIQ puts ICSI, a common fertilization method, at about $3,000 and each additional frozen embryo transfer at about $3,000.⁶ Our IVF cost guide covers those costs.

What happens in an egg freezing cycle?

ASRM describes the process as the first half of IVF: about 10 to 12 days of self-given injections to mature several eggs, with blood tests and ultrasounds to track the ovaries, then an outpatient egg retrieval of 15 to 30 minutes under light anesthesia.² An embryologist inspects the eggs and freezes them the same day.² FertilityIQ estimates the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome at 5% to 15%.¹ The IVF step by step guide explains stimulation and retrieval in more detail.

Does egg freezing work?

It can, but each egg is a chance, not a guarantee. ASRM says the chance that one frozen egg yields a baby in the future is about 2% to 12%, and that it drops with age.² Success depends on both your age when you freeze and the total number of eggs frozen.²

A 2016 study from a US private fertility practice followed 1,283 vitrified eggs warmed for 128 IVF cycles.³ It found thawed eggs fertilized, implanted and led to births at rates comparable to fresh eggs, and that overall about 6.4% of warmed eggs became a live-born child. The authors used their data to estimate how many eggs a person would need to freeze, by age, for a given chance of one or more children.³

FertilityIQ adds that success also depends on the quality of the clinic’s laboratory, and that women who freeze over 40 are more likely to actually use their eggs.¹

What is the best age to freeze eggs?

ASRM says planned egg freezing is most likely to succeed when eggs are frozen before 38, that it typically works best for people in their 20s to early 30s, and that it is not commonly recommended over 38.² The number of eggs falls more rapidly from 35 to 40, and egg quality also declines with age.² Before starting, a reproductive endocrinologist will offer blood tests and an ultrasound to see whether freezing is appropriate for you.² If you are over 40 and weighing your options, see getting pregnant after 40.

How common is egg freezing?

Egg freezing is common. SART’s final 2023 report counted 38,126 oocyte banking cycles for fertility preservation at member clinics that year.⁴

Does insurance cover egg freezing?

Sometimes. RESOLVE lists 22 states with fertility preservation insurance mandates as of October 2026.⁵ FertilityIQ explains that these laws generally require coverage for people who have been given a cancer diagnosis and want to freeze eggs or sperm.⁶ For planned (elective) freezing, ASRM says some but not all insurance plans cover it, so check your plan and any employer fertility benefit.²

On taxes, IRS Publication 502 lets you include the cost of procedures done to overcome an inability to have children, including temporary storage of eggs.⁷ Whether planned egg freezing qualifies depends on your circumstances; ask a tax professional.

Paying for egg freezing

ASRM says some, but not all, insurance plans cover elective egg freezing, so check your plan and any employer benefit documents first.² If you are considering a loan, FertilityIQ’s review of fertility loans for IVF notes that most lenders want a credit score above about 600, with trade-offs between speed, convenience and interest rate.⁶ Compare the total cost of a loan with what you would also pay in storage fees over the years.

Questions to ask before you pay

• What is included in the quote: medication, anesthesia, monitoring, first-year storage?
• What is the annual storage fee after the first year, and can I move eggs to another facility?
• How many mature eggs do you expect me to get, based on my tests?
• What are your lab’s results for thawing and using frozen eggs, by age?
• What will it cost to thaw and use the eggs later?

Also ask yourself how likely you are to use them, given FertilityIQ’s finding that fewer than 10% do.¹ Egg freezing is one option for later family building, alongside trying sooner. For preparing for any pregnancy, our preconception checklist is a good start, and the Treat hub covers every option.