Fertility Treatment Options
Egg Freezing
Mature oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing), is a solution for those who would like to delay pregnancy for various reasons.
Egg Freezing
For women who want to delay having children for any reason, egg freezing, also known as mature oocyte cryopreservation, is a smart solution.
In egg freezing, the ovaries are stimulated with hormones to create several eggs, the eggs are then removed from the ovaries and brought to the lab where they are frozen to subzero temperatures in preparation for use at a future date.
What Is Social Egg Freezing?
Women increasingly choose to delay having children in order to finish their education, establish their careers, or wait to find the ideal spouse with whom to share their lives.
As a result, more and more women over the age of 35 are having difficulties with their fertility.
By potentially extending their fertility years, egg freezing gives women the chance to have more control over their future fertility. By the time a woman reaches the age of 35, she has lost around 95% of her eggs, and the remaining eggs are aging quickly.
Freezing eggs is a sensible answer to this issue. Similar to how eggs are obtained for IVF, the process begins with egg collection.
A technique like vitrification can be used to freeze eggs. The procedure for cryopreserving (freezing) eggs, embryos, and sperm is known as vitrification.
In circumstances where a person isn’t ready to get pregnant but wants to make sure they can in the future, eggs, sperm, and embryos can be frozen. The eggs will then be thawed and fertilized when the person is ready to use them, followed by the transfer of the embryo.
It is better to preserve more eggs than may be required because, unfortunately, not all of them may survive the cryopreservation and thawing process.
For the best chance of success:
- A woman should ideally be 35 or younger;
- Around 15-20 eggs are needed to have an excellent chance for pregnancy.
- Vitrified (frozen) eggs generally have an 85% chance of survival.
- Eggs can likely be kept in storage indefinitely.
The process & what to expect
Egg-freezing, or oöcyte cryopreservation in medical jargon, is the procedure of stimulating the ovaries with hormones to generate many eggs, extracting the eggs from the ovaries, and transporting them to the lab where they are cooled to subzero temperatures to be thawed at a later time.
The eggs are harvested while sedated after ovarian stimulation. This in-theatre treatment lasts 20 to 30 minutes. You will need to recover in the clinic for a few hours after egg collection before leaving for home.
Is Egg Freezing right for you?
Consider egg freezing in the following situations:
- You just received a cancer diagnosis.
- You were just told that you have early ovarian failure.
- You haven’t met the ideal spouse with whom to start a family.
- You’d like to wait till later in life to start a family.
What happens to my eggs once I choose to freeze them?
In liquid nitrogen tanks, eggs are preserved indefinitely. Daily checks are made of gas mixtures, temperatures, and liquid nitrogen levels, and emergency plans are in place in case of equipment failure or other problems (such as power failures). We can ensure the safety of your eggs in every way possible.
You can use your eggs in our clinic once you’re ready to do so. IVF procedures will be used to thaw and fertilise your frozen eggs. Sperm from a donor or your spouse may be used. Alternatively, your eggs can be shipped to a clinic of your choice. Please be aware that shipping will be at your expense.
When should I freeze my eggs?
How does egg freezing work?
Although it is very simple to freeze sperm and embryos, the egg is the biggest cell in the human body and contains a lot of water. Ice crystals that form during the freezing process can kill a cell.
Over the years, we have discovered that in order to avoid ice crystal formation, it is necessary to dehydrate the egg and swap the water for an “anti-freeze” before freezing.
We also discovered that the conventional procedure known as ICSI requires sperm to be administered with a needle because the egg’s shell hardens when it is frozen (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection).
The vitrification method of flash freezing is used to freeze eggs.