Egg Freezing

What is egg freezing?

Egg freezing is a way of preserving a woman’s fertility so she can try to have a family in the future. Egg Freezing involves collecting a woman’s eggs, freezing them and then thawing them later for use in fertility treatment.

A woman’s chances of conceiving naturally falls with age because the quality and number of available eggs drop. Egg freezing helps preserve fertility by freezing the eggs when the woman is young and the eggs are of the highest quality.

Is egg freezing right for me?

You might want to consider freezing your eggs if:

• You have a medical condition or need treatment for a medical condition that will affect your fertility, such as cancer.
• Ovarian problems such as recurrent ovarian cysts, endometriomas (severe endometriosis) or are due to undergo surgery that will result in the loss of the ovary or eggs.
• You’re not ready to have a child or you haven’t found the right partner and you’re worried about your fertility declining.
• You’re at risk of injury or death (for example, you’re a member of the Armed Forces who is being deployed to a war zone).

How safe is it?

IVF is mostly very safe, although some women do experience side effects from their fertility drugs, these are usually mild, but in extreme cases women can develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).

It’s also important to know that as you get older, there is more risk of pregnancy-related complications and health problems to both you and your baby.

What does egg freezing involve?

The egg freezing process is similar to an IVF process, which usually takes around two to three weeks to complete. Normally this will involve taking drugs to boost  egg production and help them mature, the eggs will then be collected under general anaesthetic or sedation.

Instead of mixing the eggs with sperm (as in conventional IVF) a cryoprotectant (freezing solution) will be used to protect the eggs. The eggs will then be frozen usually by vitrification (fast freezing) and stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

Normally around 15 eggs are collected although this isn’t always possible for women with low ovarian reserves (low numbers of eggs). When you want to use them, the eggs will be thawed and then injected with your partner’s or donor’s sperm.

What happens when I want to use my eggs?

Eggs that have been frozen and thawed must be fertilised using a fertility treatment called ICSI, as the freezing process makes the outer coating around the eggs tougher and sperm may be unable to penetrate it naturally under IVF.

What is ICSI?

ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) is an IVF technique in which a single sperm is injected into the centre of an egg. Each individual sperm cell is picked up in a very fine suction needle (many times smaller than a human hair) before injection. The whole process is visualised through very high magnification microscopes.