Know Your Eggs: A Guide to Egg Health, Egg Freezing and What's Next

If you're 30-something, your Instagram feed probably looks a bit like ours here at femme HQ: full of life milestones - engagements, weddings, baby announcements. But lately, we've noticed something else creeping in alongside them: egg health and egg freezing content, popping up more and more. It's got us talking about why this is suddenly the topic everyone's discussing. 

When people talk about egg health, they're usually talking about two different things: egg count and egg quality - so what's the difference between the two? 

Egg count (also called ovarian reserve) refers to how many eggs you have remaining. Women are born with all the eggs they'll ever have — typically 1–2 million at birth, dropping to around 300,000 by puberty. That number naturally declines over time, with a sharper drop after the age of 35. Of that original supply, only around 300–500 eggs will ever actually be ovulated across a reproductive lifetime. 

Egg quality refers to how genetically "normal" an egg is, which affects its ability to fertilise and develop into a healthy pregnancy. Quality tends to decline with age too, but unlike count, it can be influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors. 

You can have a high egg count but lower egg quality, or vice versa - which is exactly why looking at just one number rarely tells the full story.

Our bodies do such a great job of selecting high-quality eggs. 

— Maisie Hill, Period Power.  

Rather than framing this decline as a loss, Hill reframes it as proof of an incredibly selective process - your body working hard behind the scenes to put forward only the best-quality eggs for ovulation. 

Ovarian reserve is essentially your body's remaining "supply" of eggs. It's not something you can top up, but understanding where you stand can help you make more informed decisions about fertility planning, timing, and whether options like egg freezing might be worth exploring. 

AMH (Anti-Müllerian Hormone) is a hormone produced by small follicles in the ovaries. A simple blood test can measure your AMH level, giving a general indication of your ovarian reserve - roughly how many eggs you likely have left. 

The key thing to remember: AMH reflects quantity, not quality. 

It's a useful clue, not a fertility score. A high AMH doesn't guarantee healthy eggs, and a lower AMH doesn't mean pregnancy isn't possible. It's one piece of the puzzle, best interpreted alongside other factors and, ideally, with guidance from a clinician. 

A few numbers worth knowing: 

• You're born with roughly 1–2 million eggs, down to around 300,000 by puberty 

• Only around 300–500 eggs will ever be ovulated in a lifetime 

• Male factors contribute to roughly 40–50% of fertility challenges in couples — this isn't a one-sided story 

Download the Know Your Eggs guide to get more guidance on what to eat, what to cut back on, and a full fertility-friendly meal plan, plus the lifestyle tweaks (from plastics to alcohol to movement) that support egg quality day to day. 

It's a useful clue, not a fertility score. A high AMH doesn't guarantee healthy eggs, and a lower AMH doesn't mean pregnancy isn't possible. It's one piece of the puzzle, best interpreted alongside other factors and, ideally, with guidance from a clinician. 

A few numbers worth knowing: 

• You're born with roughly 1–2 million eggs, down to around 300,000 by puberty 

• Only around 300–500 eggs will ever be ovulated in a lifetime 

• Male factors contribute to roughly 40–50% of fertility challenges in couples - this isn't a one-sided story 

Life doesn't follow one script and family-building doesn't have to either. 

In England and Wales, the average age of someone having their first baby rose from 23 in 1970 to 29 in 2020 (ONS). And the numbers show it: according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK's fertility regulator, egg freezing cycles nearly tripled between 2019 and 2023 — from 2,567 to 6,932 a year. The average age at freezing in 2023 was 35, with women returning to thaw and use their eggs at an average age of 40. 

As life timelines have become more varied, more women are exploring egg freezing, not as a last resort, but as an informed option. 

Less "last resort." More informed option — if you want it. 

Sources: HFEA, Egg Freezing: A Factsheet (hfea.gov.uk); Office for National Statistics. 

Elective vs Medical Egg Freezing 

Egg freezing involves collecting and storing unfertilised eggs for possible future use, giving people more flexibility around family-building or medical treatment. 

Elective egg freezing (more time + flexibility) 

• Not ready to start a family 

• Waiting for the right partner 

• Career or personal timing 

• Solo parenthood planning 

• Gender-identity considerations 

Medical egg freezing (preserving options before care) 

• Chemotherapy or radiotherapy 

• Surgery that may affect fertility 

• Conditions such as endometriosis 

• Some hormone therapies 

• Gender-affirming care pathways 

A future pregnancy is never guaranteed and outcomes can by influenced by your age at freezing, the number of mature eggs stored, sperm factors and future treatment. But the HFEA is clear that age at freezing (not age at use) is the single biggest factor in future success, which is why more people are choosing to explore it earlier. 

The Process, in Brief 

Egg freezing moves through three broad phases: an initial fertility assessment and specialist consultation (including AMH testing and a scan), a treatment cycle involving around 10–14 days of hormonal stimulation followed by a short egg-collection procedure, and finally rapid freezing (vitrification). In the UK eggs can be frozen for up to 55 years with consent renewed every 10. 

The full Know Your Eggs guide breaks this down step by step, including what to expect at each stage and how to prepare your body and mind for treatment. 

Egg Freezing: Quick Answers 

How many eggs should I freeze? 

There's no single magic number some clinics discuss ranges such as 15–20 mature eggs for a good chance of success, but it depends on age, ovarian reserve and individual goals. 

Curious about stimulation timelines, storage, and vitrification? The full Know Your Eggs guide answers the questions people ask most. 

Fertility is having a moment on social media right now - "fertility maxxing," endless supplement stacks, and no shortage of things you're apparently supposed to be doing. It's a lot. 

This guide is full of genuinely useful lifestyle tips - nutrition, sleep, supplements, tracking, and more - but none of it is meant to become another source of pressure. Stress itself can work against the very hormones and processes we've talked about here, so piling on guilt over an imperfect diet or a skipped supplement isn't doing you any favours. 

Think of this less as a checklist to nail perfectly, and more as a menu: pick what feels doable, make small changes where you can, and let go of the rest. 

Ready to take the next step? 

• 📥 Download the full Know Your Eggs guide 

• 🛒 Shop Ovum Time to Conceive — 10% off with code KNOWYOUREGGS