Egg Freezing

Egg freezing is a procedure that consists of freezing your mature eggs (oocytes) prior to any fertilisation. Your stored eggs can later be thawed and fertilised with your partners or donor sperm during an IVF treatment at a time that is right for you in the future.

Who is suitable for egg freezing?

Egg freezing is provided at IVF London as a method of preserving your fertility for use in future treatment. Some women choose to freeze their eggs for medical reasons, e.g. they have been diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses which is likely to affect their ovaries and can prevent them from producing eggs in the future, or perhaps because they are at risk of early menopause. Other women may decide for social reasons (single women or women wishing to delay childbearing due to career reasons) that they wish to preserve their fertility at an optimum time in their reproductive life, in preparation for treatment later on in life. If freezing for social reasons it is advisable to freeze your eggs whilst you are younger in age.

How does it work?

Similar to the early stages of an IVF cycle, at the start of an egg freezing procedure, you will be required to administer a series of medications to grow multiple follicles in the ovaries. We will monitor your progress and reaction to these medications with ultrasounds and blood tests to pinpoint the time of ovulation ready for an egg collection procedure. Your mature eggs will then be collected (retrieved) from the follicles of your ovaries and then sent to our laboratory to prepare them for vitrification. Vitrification is a revolutionary method in egg freezing that significantly enhances egg survival during freezing and thawing. It uses ultra-rapid cooling to prevent ice crystal formation, and this process transforms eggs into a glass-like state almost instantaneously.

Using your frozen eggs

Once eggs have been frozen, their quality will not deteriorate whilst frozen. However, eggs cannot be stored indefinitely as per HFEA requirements, which set a limit of 10 years on the storage of eggs. This period can be extended in certain circumstances, in periods of 10 years up to a total of 55 years. Eggs that have been frozen and are to be used for future treatments, after thawing, are injected with sperm as in an ICSI procedure to achieve fertilisation, prior to a viable embryo or blastocyst transfer into your uterus to develop as in a normal pregnancy.

Risks and side effects

You should be aware that not all eggs will survive the freezing/thawing process. At IVF London we use the advanced technology of Vitrification to freeze the eggs which yields survival rates in excess of 95%.

The egg collection is a relatively non-invasive procedure that carries minimal risk. However, stimulation of the ovaries has been associated with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Mild to moderate OHSS can be managed with pain medications and will usually resolve on its own within a couple of weeks. You may also experience some pain or abdominal cramping after egg collection, similar to that of getting your period.

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