Egg Freezing
Egg freezing
Egg freezing, also known as mature oocyte cryopreservation, is a method used to save women's ability to get pregnant in the future.
Eggs harvested from your ovaries are frozen unfertilized and stored for later use. A frozen egg can be thawed, combined with sperm in a lab and implanted in your uterus (in vitro fertilization).
Please feel free to contact to set you up for your first appointment free for counselling the detailing the plan according to your needs.
Why it's done
Egg freezing might be an option if you're not ready to become pregnant now but want to try to make sure you can get pregnant later.
Unlike with fertilized egg freezing (embryo cryopreservation), egg freezing doesn't require sperm because the eggs aren't fertilized before they're frozen. Just as with embryo freezing, however, you'll need to use fertility drugs to make you ovulate so that you'll produce multiple eggs for retrieval.
You might consider egg freezing if:
- You have a condition or circumstance that can affect your fertility. These might include sickle cell anemia, autoimmune diseases such as lupus, and gender diversity, such as being transgender.
- You need treatment for cancer or another illness that can affect your ability to get pregnant. Certain medical treatments — such as radiation or chemotherapy — can harm your fertility. Egg freezing before treatment might enable you to have biological children later.
- You're undergoing in vitro fertilization. When undergoing in vitro fertilization, some people prefer egg freezing to embryo freezing for religious or ethical reasons.
- You wish to preserve younger eggs now for future use. Freezing eggs at a younger age might help you get pregnant when you're ready.
Risks
Egg freezing carries various risks, including:
- Egg retrieval procedure complications. Rarely, use of an aspirating needle to retrieve eggs causes bleeding, infection or damage to the bowel, bladder or a blood vessel.
- Emotional risks. Egg freezing can provide hope for a future pregnancy, but there's no guarantee of success.
If you use your frozen eggs to have a child, the risk of miscarriage will be primarily based on your age at the time your eggs were frozen. Older women have higher miscarriage rates, mainly due to having older eggs.
Research to date hasn't shown an increase in the risk of birth defects for babies born as a result of egg freezing. However, more research is needed on the safety of egg freezing.