How Much Does It Cost to Freeze Eggs? The Rule of Thumb and Where It Breaks

Freezing your eggs in the United States costs about $8,500 to $12,000 per cycle in clinic fees, plus $3,000 to $5,000 for medication billed separately by a pharmacy, plus $600 to $800 a year for storage. Extend Fertility in New York publishes $8,500 per cycle with anesthesia, monitoring and vitrification included; NYU Langone Fertility Center publishes egg cryopreservation starting at $10,750 and states that the figure excludes medication and anesthesia. Thawing those eggs and using them later is a separate bill of roughly $7,400 to $21,200.

What one cycle costs, line by line

Three American clinics publish their egg freezing prices in full, and the distances between them beat any national average.

| Line item | Extend Fertility (New York) | NYU Langone Fertility Center (New York) | CNY Fertility (Syracuse) | |---|---|---|---| | Consultation and intake | $250, credited toward a cycle within a year | About $500 | Not itemized | | Ovarian reserve testing | Bundled into the $250 assessment (AMH plus ultrasound) | Not itemized | Not itemized | | Freezing cycle | $8,500 | From $10,750 | $3,999 procedure only; $6,994 with medication and monitoring | | Anesthesia | Inside the cycle fee | Excluded in writing | Inside the $6,994 package | | Monitoring visits | Inside the cycle fee | Billed by outside providers | Inside the $6,994 package | | Medication | $3,000–$5,000, paid to a pharmacy | Excluded in writing | About $1,800, standard protocol | | Storage | $800, one-year plan | Not itemized | $600 a year | | Thaw and fertilize eggs | $6,500 | — | $5,140 | | Frozen embryo transfer | $4,900 | — | $2,294 | | Full IVF using frozen eggs | — | From $21,200 with genetic testing | — |

Read across the rows rather than down the columns. The freezing-cycle line runs from $3,999 to $10,750, and these clinics are not performing three different procedures. They are drawing the edge of the quote in three different places.

The rule of thumb, and the first place it breaks

Most people arrive with a working figure of about $16,000 per round: roughly $11,000 to the clinic and $5,000 to the pharmacy. FertilityIQ's cost data supports that as a national average, and CNY Fertility's 2026 price guide cites $16,800 for a full cycle and $4,000 for stimulation medication. It is a fair average that breaks in four specific places, and the first is the word "included."

Extend's $8,500 covers every monitoring visit, the retrieval with anesthesia, and vitrification. NYU Langone's financial page carries a sentence doing the opposite work: "These fees do not include the cost of fertility medications or anesthesia." Two published prices describing different quantities of care. Add medication and anesthesia to the NYU figure and the gap between the two clinics is closer to $6,000 than to $2,250.

I spent years in an optical lab cutting, edging and coating lenses, and nearly every argument at the counter came down to a job ticket. The lens price and the anti-reflective coating price sat on separate lines. Whoever read the first and assumed it covered the second went home with an uncoated lens and a grievance. Fertility quotes carry the same seam, and it sits somewhere different at every clinic.

ASRM's coding guidance gives you a lever. The society lists CPT 89337 for cryopreservation of oocytes, described as covering the entire preservation cycle including monitoring visits, plus 89346 for a year of oocyte storage, 89254 for oocyte identification and 89250 for culture. ASRM then adds that these codes "do not seem to encompass a complete picture of the services rendered." That is a professional body saying the billing vocabulary itself is incomplete.

Five questions turn a brochure number into something comparable:

1. Ask for the quote in writing, with the CPT codes the clinic intends to bill.
2. Ask which of these eight items are excluded: consultation, ovarian reserve testing, medication, monitoring, anesthesia, retrieval, vitrification, first-year storage.
3. Ask what you owe if the cycle is cancelled before retrieval.
4. Ask the storage rate for year two, and whether that rate is fixed.
5. Ask for today's prices on thaw, fertilization and transfer.

The second break: one cycle rarely holds the eggs the model asks for

Goldman and colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital published a counseling model in Human Reproduction in 2017, built from 520 ICSI cycles and euploidy rates from about 14,500 tested embryos. For a 75% chance of at least one live birth, it puts the requirement at 10 mature eggs frozen at age 34, 20 at age 37, and 61 at age 42.

Then there is the supply side. A 2025 retrospective cohort in Diagnostics built age-specific yield curves from 400 healthy women aged 30 to 41 on a standardized antagonist protocol at 300 IU per day, all in a first elective cycle. Median mature eggs cryopreserved came out at 15 at age 30, 11 at 35, and 6 at 40. Every additional year of age cut the number of oocytes retrieved by 8.0%.

Set those two findings beside each other and the $16,000 rule stops describing anyone much past 34. A 37-year-old needs roughly 20 mature eggs and can expect around 10 from a retrieval. That is two cycles before the storage clock even starts. FertilityIQ's data shows this playing out: the average patient does a second cycle, and more than 20% do a third.

The third break: storage bills you while nothing happens

Extend charges $800 for a one-year storage plan and CNY charges $600 a year, with FertilityIQ's survey of clinics spanning $350 to $1,500. Year one is frequently folded into the cycle fee, which is why the number feels negligible when you sign.

Duration is the part no quote contains. Cascante's 2022 cohort at NYU Langone, covering 543 patients across 800 freezing cycles, recorded a median of 4.2 years between first freeze and thaw. The companion follow-up by Blakemore, tracking everyone who froze at that center between 2005 and 2009, found that a decade or more later 47.2% still had eggs sitting in storage, 38.1% had thawed them, and 11.7% had discarded them. Ten years at $800 is $8,000, roughly the price of another retrieval. The wind here has been up since before dawn and the window rattles; by the second week you stop hearing it, and a storage charge on autopay does the same. FertilityIQ's lifetime decomposition assigns about 20% of the total cost of egg freezing to storage alone.

What it costs to thaw and use them

Extend prices the return trip at $6,500 to thaw and fertilize, plus $4,900 for the frozen embryo transfer: $11,400 for one attempt, at today's rates rather than the rates in eight years. CNY publishes $5,140 for frozen-egg IVF and $2,294 for the transfer. NYU Langone quotes IVF with frozen eggs and genetic testing starting at $21,200.

Fertilization is a separate line because thawed eggs are handled differently. ASRM's committee opinion on ICSI for nonmale-factor indications states that ICSI "has been the preferred method of fertilizing cryopreserved oocytes," attributed to cumulus removal before freezing and possible changes to the zona pellucida. The same opinion is candid that limited data support it over conventional insemination. You are paying for micromanipulation either way.

Egg freezing versus embryo freezing

Extend's published list puts an egg freezing cycle at $8,500 and an embryo freezing cycle at $14,500, with genetic biopsy at $300 per embryo. The $6,000 difference is largely the fertilization and blastocyst work that the egg route defers to a $6,500 bill later, so across a full pathway the two converge.

The differences that never appear on a price list matter more. Embryos require sperm at the time of freezing, from a partner or donor, and become jointly held property with disposition terms signed in advance. Eggs stay unilaterally yours. Embryos also give you information now: a biopsied embryo either is euploid or is not, while a frozen egg tells you nothing until it is thawed. Cascante's data quantifies the difference in outcome: transfers of euploid embryos produced live births at 55%, compared with 31% for non-biopsied transfers.

Where you live and who insures you

Metro pricing moves the clinic fee by several thousand dollars, with New York and Los Angeles topping the published range and Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta below it. Insurance moves it far more.

California's SB 729 took effect for large-group fully insured plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, requiring coverage of infertility diagnosis and treatment including up to three completed egg retrievals. RESOLVE's guidance is direct that elective freezing for social or personal reasons falls outside it; the mandate reaches preservation when medical treatment threatens fertility. Georgia's HB 94, effective the same date, covers preservation only for iatrogenic infertility. Texas remains a mandate-to-offer state, where insurers must make IVF coverage available and employers decide whether to buy it. SB 833 in 2025 cut the required infertility history from five years to three.

Two numbers decide whether any of that touches you. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found 67% of covered workers enrolled in self-funded plans, rising to 80% at larger firms, and federal ERISA law exempts self-funded plans from every state mandate. Mercer's 2024 National Survey put elective egg freezing coverage at 21% of employers with 500 or more workers, against 47% for IVF that year and 50% in the 2025 survey.

The number worth budgeting

Take a 37-year-old planning for one child and price the pathway at Extend's published rates: $250 assessment, two cycles at $8,500, medication at roughly $4,000 per cycle, eight years of storage at $800, then $6,500 to thaw and fertilize and $4,900 for one transfer. That comes to $43,050, before a second transfer. Run the identical sequence at CNY's published rates and it lands near $26,200. The spread between two real American price lists is $17,000 for the same set of decisions, and neither total is $16,000.

Common questions

Will insurance cover egg freezing?

Rarely, when the freezing is elective. California's SB 729, effective January 2026, covers IVF but excludes elective egg freezing. Mercer's 2024 survey found 21% of employers with 500 or more workers covered it. KFF reports 67% of covered workers sit in self-funded plans, which ERISA exempts from state mandates.

Is 37 too old to freeze my eggs?

No, though the arithmetic changes. Goldman's 2017 model in Human Reproduction puts a 37-year-old at 20 mature eggs for a 75% chance of one live birth, against 10 eggs at age 34. Since a single cycle at that age typically yields around 10 mature eggs, plan on two retrievals.

Is egg freezing worth it?

That depends on whether you use them. NYU Langone's 10-to-15-year follow-up found 38.1% of patients returned to thaw, while 47.2% left eggs in storage. Among those who did thaw, Cascante's 2022 cohort reported a 51% live birth rate for patients who froze before 38. The money buys an option priced near $30,000.

How many eggs do I need to freeze for two children?

More than one cycle usually yields. Goldman's model gives a 34-year-old with 20 mature eggs a 66% chance of two or more live births; at 37 that falls to 39%, and at 42 to 7%. Since median yield is roughly 11 mature eggs at age 35, most patients need several retrievals.

What does egg storage cost each year?

Between $350 and $1,500 a year, per FertilityIQ's clinic data. CNY Fertility publishes $600 and Extend Fertility $800 for a one-year plan. Many clinics include year one in the cycle fee. Off-site cryobanks typically charge less. Ten years at $800 totals $8,000, uncounted on the day you sign.

Is it cheaper to freeze embryos instead of eggs?

Not up front. Extend Fertility publishes $8,500 for an egg freezing cycle and $14,500 for an embryo cycle, plus $300 per embryo for genetic biopsy. The embryo path front-loads the fertilization you would otherwise pay $6,500 for later, so the totals converge. Embryos also require sperm now and become jointly owned.

What costs are not included in an egg freezing quote?

Commonly: medication, anesthesia, ovarian reserve testing, storage past year one, cancellation fees, and the entire thaw-and-transfer pathway. NYU Langone states in writing that its $10,750 starting price excludes medication and anesthesia. Ask which of those eight line items your quote covers before comparing two clinics.