Kira Jones was 19 when she discovered she was perimenopausal after taking an Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) test at the fertility clinic where she worked. The results showed a low ovarian reserve comparable to someone in their late 30s or 40s, prompting her to freeze her eggs to preserve her chance of starting a family.
Jones, now 25, had always wanted a big family. She decided to begin egg preservation immediately, funding the costly procedure herself with loans from family and personal financial sacrifices. She underwent two rounds of egg retrieval, successfully freezing 17 of the 26 eggs collected.
Unexpected Diagnosis
“I didn’t even know I was perimenopausal,” Jones said. “I thought I was just a regular person, just had a few irregular periods here and there and that was that.” After her test results, she was told that if she wanted to “do something about it,” it had to be “done here and now.”
Jones borrowed money from her family and made personal financial sacrifices to afford the monthly egg preservation fees. “It was a decision that I knew I had to make, and it was one that obviously came with financial pressure, and with emotional pressure, because it’s come out of the blue,” she said.
Health Challenges
Dealing with perimenopause at a young age has been challenging. Jones now has to be careful with her lifestyle, including checking her bone density due to osteopenia in her hips. “Brain fog day to day is awful. You feel like you’re a toddler again,” she said.
Jones hopes to use her experience to urge other young people to consider their fertility. “I think I’ve been in such a fortunate position that I could allow myself to have that choice (of starting a family), rather than it just being ripped away from me and not knowing,” she said.
