Gynaecologist/Obstetrician specialist, Dr Promise Sefogah, has urged women who are not yet ready to start a family to consider fertility preservation early, emphasising that egg quality declines with age.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on January 26, Dr Sefogah said fertility preservation provides an option for women who wish to prioritise education, career, or other personal goals before childbirth.

“If you don’t see yourself settling to start having a family, then things like what we call fertility preservation can be brought onto the table for discussion,” he explained.

He outlined that the process involves hormonal stimulation to enable the body to produce multiple eggs in a cycle, rather than the single egg naturally released each month.

“We put in some injections so that instead of developing or recruiting one egg in a cycle, we have a good number that would have gone to waste. We have them all developed, we take them out, and then we freeze them,” Dr Sefogah said.

He stressed that timing is crucial, as younger eggs are healthier and have a higher likelihood of resulting in successful pregnancies.

“So we do this when you are 34, 35, or even before. The eggs are younger, and they’re of better quality,” he noted.

Dr Sefogah added that women who later decide to have children, even in their late 40s, can rely on preserved eggs to improve their chances of conceiving and delivering healthy babies.

“If you want to finish all your academic and professional pursuits and you are in your late 40s, you have eggs that are much younger and of better quality for us to use to help you conceive healthy babies of your own,” he said.

Fertility preservation, including egg freezing, is gaining attention in Ghana as more women delay childbirth for career, educational, and personal reasons. Specialists continue to stress the importance of early planning and informed reproductive choices.