There’s one concern we hear over and over again from women considering egg freezing: it’s costly. From articles, to Tweets, to comments sections, women are expressing their hesitation to undertake the expense. We totally understand that—this is big chunk of change we’re talking! (It’s why we’re pretty set on lowering the cost of egg freezing and making it an option for more women.)

But a recent study on the economics of “baby-making” brings up an interesting counterpoint. It turns out that freezing your eggs actually decreases the cost of getting pregnant later on and increases your chances of giving birth to a healthy baby. That’s because, if you don’t try to get pregnant until you’re 40, there’s a pretty good chance you might need in vitro fertilization to help you along, and using your own previously frozen eggs is both more effective and less expensive.

Like, way less expensive.

Freezing eggs before age 35, and then using at 40, decreased the cost of a live birth by over $15,000.

Now that’s a chunk of change.

Let’s look at the numbers a little more closely.

The team who did this study used an algorithm to determine success rates and costs for all the different options a woman has, including egg freezing, trying naturally at 40, and in vitro fertilization (basing their calculations on success rates and costs at regionally diverse practices over the past 9 years).

Here’s what they found.

Likelihood that a women will need fertility treatments to achieve pregnancy at 40: 84%

Average cost to freeze 16 eggs at 35 and thaw ‘em to use at 40: $39,946

This is based on a cycle cost of around $15,000. With much lower cycle costs at Extend Fertility, women who freeze their eggs here are looking at much lower overall costs for the egg freezing process. Woohoo!

Success rate when using previously frozen eggs: 62%

Average cost of two cycles of in vitro fertilization at age 40, without frozen eggs: $55,060

Success rate after two cycles of IVF at 40: 42%

Their conclusion was quite clear: for women who might wait until they’re 40 to have children, freezing egg in their 30s is the smart choice, economically and biologically. (And making Extend Fertility the even smarter choice. Not to toot our own horn or anything.)

But what to do with the $15,000+ you save when you choose to freeze your eggs? We have a few ideas:

• Save it to buy an apartment or put a downpayment on a country house.
• Buy a sensible pre-owned car.
• Take an extravagant European vacation.
• Donate it to a worthy non-profit org.
• Put it in a savings account for your future kiddo’s college tuition—because who knows how expensive that will be by the time they’re 18.

What about you?

Talk to us about baby budgeting on Twitter and Facebook!