Olympian and former LSU athlete shares her egg freezing journey
As Olympic athlete and former LSU track star Lolo Jones neared her 40th birthday, she feared she was running out of time to have children. At 39, she had still not found a life partner to settle down with and start a family. The athlete took to Instagram to share a tearful video with fans, revealing her dream of having a family of her own and egg freezing journey to give her hope.
“Terrified. 15 days before I turned 40,” Lolo captioned her Instagram post. “Nothing has scared me more than feeling like I’m running out of time to have a family.”
Lolo said she initially wanted to freeze her eggs when she was in her early 30’s. “I just kept thinking I will meet my husband and things will all work out,” she explained, adding, “Well here I am almost 10 years later and it hasn’t.” Prompted by her fear of never having children of her own, Lolo reevaluated her life and where she was, deciding it was now or never if she wanted to freeze her eggs.
The Olympic hurdler and bobsledder initially reached out to Frame Fertility, a fertility advisor that specializes in helping women navigate their family building journeys. They helped answer Lolo’s questions about egg freezing, provided a personal coach who explained her next steps, and connected her with Dr. Neil Chappell at Fertility Answers and IVF lab partner Ovation Fertility.
“The team was incredible,” said Lolo about her Fertility Answers experience. “They first checked my AMH levels which showed I had a great egg reserve for my age! 3.2!!” Relieved that her egg supply was still in a normal range, she jumped right into the egg freezing process with the goal of completing it before she turned 40. After a two-week period of taking self-administered hormone injections to stimulate the production of multiple mature eggs, she had her egg retrieval with Dr. Chappell.
Coming to after anesthesia, Lolo documented getting the news of her successful egg harvest on Instagram. “I honestly feel like a weight has been lifted,” she said.
From personal experience, Lolo is taking her role as a spokesperson for egg freezing seriously. “I WISH I WOULD’VE DONE THIS EARLIER. If you are a women and you want kids one day but not right now you can easily find out your egg reserve by taking an AMH test,” she documented on Instagram. “Simply put freezing your eggs gives you more options. It’s not a guarantee but it simply gives you more options for later in life.”
For more information about egg freezing, contact our Louisiana fertility specialists today.