What is Egg Freezing?

Karen and her husband were exceptionally busy and thoroughly absorbed in their separate careers two years after getting married. Sara chose egg freezing to secure her motherhood for the future because they weren’t ready to start a family yet.

Many organizations are led by capable women in recent times, when women are more empowered and equality has become the norm. With additional obligations on their shoulders, modern women are more prone to postpone marriage and childbearing plans.

According to various studies, women over the age of 35 have a lower likelihood of becoming pregnant and a higher risk of infertility, as age is a significant determinant in fertility. The fewer eggs a woman has in her ovarian reserve and the less competent her oocytes become as she gets older. The quality of a woman’s eggs deteriorates as she grows older, and this is one of the leading causes of infertility in later life. The poor quality of eggs is also one of the key reasons for IVF failure in couples that pursue artificial reproductive therapy.

As a result, oocyte cryopreservation, also known as egg freezing, and vitrification has become one of the most widely used ways for preserving viable eggs for subsequent use. Egg freezing is the process of retrieving, freezing, and storing a woman’s eggs (oocytes) in order to maintain their reproductive potential.

Am I a good Candidate?

If you can relate to any of the below, you can consider egg freezing:

• If you are now not ready to have a child but wish to have one in the future
• If you are undergoing cancer treatment or suffering from a medical ailment that may compromise future fertility.
• If you have a family history of early or premature menopause or have a genetic link to it.
• If you have ovarian function issues, such as endometriotic cysts or previous ovarian surgery.
• Cryopreservation can be useful for storing eggs in an infertility treatment programme where sperm from the man cannot be retrieved on the same day as the eggs.

How is Egg Freezing done?

• Ovarian reserve estimation
• Stimulation
• Egg retrieval
• Assessment
• Vitrification

This freezing and thawing (de-freezing) of eggs is a highly complex technique that, if not done correctly, can result in the loss of many of your valuable eggs.

The majority of our partner clinics are well-equipped to handle egg freezing. To learn more, please contact us.

What is the Recovery after Egg Retrieval like?

The egg retrieval procedure is done under sedation and the doctor shall make sure you do not feel any pain during the procedure. Recovery is fairly quick, you will be up and about in a couple of hours.

What Results Can I Expect from Egg Freezing?

The results of IVF utilizing frozen-thawed oocytes are identical to those obtained with fresh eggs.

Infact, many fertility experts now favor the use of frozen embryos in IVF, believing that a woman’s body is more equipped to receive an embryo once she returns to her normal surroundings after taking all those hormones during egg collection. The same is true for egg collection, as long as the eggs are handled properly and not spoilt in the process.