Kourtney Kardashian Gives A Stark Reminder That Egg Freezing Is Not A Guaranteed “Safety Net”

For the past 15-plus years, reality TV viewers have been clued in on just about everything regarding the Kardashians’ lives, including their health struggles. And the premiere of season three of The Kardashians on Hulu is no exception.

Khloé Kardashian kicks off the health conversation with a discussion of the rare melanoma in her cheek, sharing that she has nerves about the upcoming dermatological procedure. Her older sister Kourtney Kardashian chimes in that the family knows how to have fun together and lift each other up, but not how to be sad and grieve together, especially during difficult health circumstances.

The cameras then cut to Khloe walking in the room to Kourtney and husband Travis Barker on one of the beds in the house and Kourtney announcing that she’s ovulating and trying to get pregnant. Then, Kourtney tells the camera more about her long, painful journey with IVF. She explains that she had seven eggs left that she had frozen back when she was 38 or 39 — but most of her eggs didn’t survive the thaw because of the fact that eggs are just one cell. When she attempted to fertilize and implant the eggs via IVF, “None of them made it to an embryo,” she says. “The freezing of eggs isn’t guaranteed, and I think that’s a misunderstanding. People do it thinking that it’s a safety net, and it’s not.”

Kourtney goes on to emphasize that the hormones she had to take to complete the IVF cycles took a mental and physical toll on her body, and that she’s not going to put herself through that again and is instead trying to conceive without assisted reproductive technologies. She’s willing to accept whatever outcome that brings: “We have a full, blessed life and I’m happy,” Kourtney says. “We are just embracing that whatever’s meant to be will be.”

So is there truth to Kourtney’s claims about egg freezing being a gamble? Keep on reading to understand more about the process.

What is the success rate of egg freezing?

In general, there has been a jump in egg freezing cycles over the past couple of years, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). This could be partially due to the initial pause of some cycles during 2020, but the use of assisted reproductive technologies has been trending upward since 2017.

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