Olympian Lolo Jones Reveals She's Freezing Her Eggs in Tearful Video: 'I'm Running Out of Time'

"If you know you want to start a family but just can't do it now ... look into freezing your eggs," Lolo Jones advised her fans and followers on Instagram

By

Jen Juneau

Published on August 4, 2022 09:43 AM

Lolo Jones is opening up about her egg-freezing journey.

The Olympian, who turns 40 on Friday, revealed in an emotional Instagram video this week that she is undergoing the process to freeze her eggs via in vitro fertilization (IVF).

"I really want a family," Jones says in the video, through tears. "I've waited for my husband for so many years, and I'm just getting mad. And I'm about to turn 40. There's a lot of stress on me right now."

Subsequent clips in the montage show the athlete at medical appointments (where doctors found "an ovarian cyst the size of a tennis ball" at her initial appointment), getting blood drawn to check her hormone levels and giving herself hormone shots in preparation for her egg retrieval.

After getting the happy news that she is a good candidate for IVF, Jones tells the camera, "Blood work came back normal, hormone levels are normal, so we're gonna proceed with the process of building these eggs!"

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In the caption of her video, Jones wrote that she was "terrified" about the process: "15 days before I turned 40. nothing has scared me more than feeling like I'm running out of time to have a family."

"I originally wanted to freeze my eggs when I was in my early 30's. I just kept thinking I will meet my husband and things will all work out," she continued. "Well here I am almost 10 years later and it hasn't. With my anxiety increasing daily to know if I could even have kids, I worked Frame Fertility who set me up with @neil.chappell.ivfmd and @fertilityanswers."

Calling her medical team "incredible," the professional bobsledder said they first checked her anti-Müllerian hormone, or AMH, which is a hormone doctors often use to get an idea of a patient's ovarian reserve — a tool that helps them estimate how well the patient will respond to egg-stimulation medications.

"They first checked my AMH levels which showed I had a great egg reserve for my age! 3.2!! Praise God SHE's FERTILE 🙌🏽🙌🏽 so now that I looked eligible to start the egg freezing process my journey began," Jones said.

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The athlete concluded her post by advising "women to check into this earlier," explaining, "Not every women [sic] is the same. You can be 35 years old and have the egg count of someone who is 25 or you can be 25 years old and already losing your eggs at a high rate."

"If you know you want to start a family but just can't do it now maybe for career reasons or you don't have a husband look into freezing your eggs," the Over It author added, telling her followers there were "more updates to come on the outcome."

Jones — who won the two-women bobsled world championship in February 2021 with Kaillie Humphries — has also previously opened up about how, due to her faith, it's important for her to remain a virgin until she gets married.

"Yeah," the former hurdler told PEOPLE last year, laughing when asked about it. "That definitely has hurt my dating life, for sure. It's considered old-fashioned, but it's something I want to do to honor my future spouse."