Many women want to be moms someday. But what if you’re not ready yet because you’re still looking for the right partner, focusing on your career, pursuing other life goals, or dealing with health issues that might affect your ability to have kids? You can choose to freeze your eggs, which lets you have kids later when you’re ready. Egg freezing or Oocyte cryopreservation is a great option for postponing motherhood until the time is right.
Egg Freezing
Oocyte cryopreservation, commonly referred to as egg freezing, is a method employed to preserve a woman’s ability to have children. It involves collecting, freezing, and storing her eggs (oocytes) for future use.
The procedure is designed to offer women the option of freezing their eggs, fertilizing them, and transferring them to their uterus as embryos to assist in a future pregnancy.
In 1986, there was the first reported human birth from a frozen oocyte. Over the past few years, oocyte cryopreservation has evolved significantly, improving the overall success of eggs surviving the freezing process.
Who Should Think About Freezing Eggs?
- Women with cancer are undergoing treatments like chemotherapy or pelvic radiation that might impact their fertility.
- Those facing surgery that could harm their ovaries
- Individuals at risk of early ovarian failure due to genetic factors like Turner syndrome, fragile X syndrome, or a family history of premature menopause.
- Women with ovarian conditions that may pose a risk to their ovaries
- Those who want to delay having kids to focus on their careers.
- Women having a medical condition or might undergo a procedure that affects their ability to have children.
Egg freezing or oocyte cryopreservation involves the following steps:
- Ovarian stimulation starts with a transvaginal ultrasound scan and blood tests to count the oocytes (egg cells).
- Medical professionals perform egg retrieval using a transvaginal ultrasound-guided needle, gently extracting eggs from the ovarian follicles.
- An embryologist selects the healthy eggs for freezing and rapidly cools them to prevent the formation of ice crystals, which could potentially harm the egg cells.
Prior to the ovarian stimulation cycle, your fertility expert may first analyze the ovarian reserve to determine the potential production of oocytes. The evaluation includes conducting blood tests and performing a pelvic ultrasound. This also helps in figuring out the correct medicine dosage. Similar to how medical professionals perform in vitro fertilization (IVF), they administer hormone medications through injections to stimulate the ovaries. After the stimulation, medical professionals perform a vaginal aspiration procedure to collect the eggs from the ovarian follicles and the surrounding fluid while the patient is under sedation.
The lab technicians choose only the mature eggs for cryopreservation after checking them under a microscope to determine their level of development. Currently, the recommended approach for egg preservation is vitrification, which includes very rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen. This guarantees the long-term preservation of the eggs until they are required for future use.
How Will the Frozen Eggs Be Used Later?
When a woman is prepared to utilize her frozen eggs for pregnancy, medical professionals thaw and examine these eggs. Following that, they fertilize them and allow them to develop into embryos over a few days. Following that, medical professionals transfer these embryos into the uterus in an attempt to achieve pregnancy. This process typically happens within 3-5 days after fertilization and employs a technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg.
Benefits of Egg Freezing
- Egg freezing can reduce “fertility anxiety.”
- You may have more time to find the appropriate partner if you freeze your eggs.
- You can preserve your eggs before undergoing invasive medical procedures or safeguard them from illness by choosing egg freezing.
- This option is suitable for females who want to freeze their eggs for later use in in vitro fertilization when they are ready to conceive.
- Suitable for those with ovarian malfunction such as chocolate cyst or hereditary diseases that cause early ovarian failure.
- It is appropriate for people who wish to freeze their eggs before undergoing radiation or chemotherapy, which might harm the ovaries.
How healthy are children born from Frozen Embryos?
The British Fertility Society’s research reveals that children born from frozen embryos may be healthier. The study’s findings indicated children born from frozen embryos weighed around 253 grams more than those born from fresh embryos. Babies conceived with frozen embryos also have a prolonged gestation time.
Conclusion
In order to successfully conceive, embryo freezing is a safe choice. It can also contribute to the delivery of a healthy child. Frozen embryos can result in healthy babies regardless of when you try to conceive. However, you have to consult with a specialist at the top IVF hospital.
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