Egg / Oocyte Freezing

Egg Freezing Process- Advanced Way To Keep Your Pregnancy On Hold!

If you want to have a baby but want to put it off for a few years, egg freezing may be a safe option. Women who choose to delay childbirth owing to cancer treatment, advanced age without a male partner, or a desire to have a child till they are over 35 years old should explore egg freezing as a fertility preservation strategy.

Defining Egg Freezing

The method of preserving a woman's eggs is known as egg freezing or oocyte cryopreservation. In an IVF process, the eggs are extracted from the ovary, frozen slowly or quickly, and then stored at below-freezing temperatures until they may be revived and fertilised at a later time. By using oocyte freezing, you are effectively putting a stop to the ticking of your biological clock.

Significance Of Egg Freezing

When a woman is in her 20s and early 30s, her eggs are of higher quality and the quantity is high. Women's eggs decline rapidly in quantity and quality around the age of 35. So, if you are in your early 30s and not ready to start a family, egg freezing may help you have a baby even if you are over 40.

The Egg Freezing Process

Once you've made the decision to freeze your eggs, you'll undergo the following steps as the egg freezing process.

  • First, you'll be given fertility drugs to help you produce more eggs.
  • The eggs are then retrieved from the ovaries using a long needle when they are mature, using an ultrasound to guide the operation. This is usually done as an outpatient procedure. You will be sedated, and the procedure is usually painless.
  • The fluid retrieved during the egg extraction is poured out into a flat plate (petri dish), and the single eggs are identified using a microscope before being withdrawn for freezing.
  • In most cases, eggs are vitrified. Vitrification is a quick-freezing technique. To cryopreserve oocytes, some Infertility Centers practice the "slow freeze" approach.

Wrapping Up

When you're ready to conceive (in the future), your frozen eggs will be liquefied and injected with a single sperm for the production of embryos. Then these fresh embryos will be transported to your uterus after a few days. This is done similarly to IVF, with a long, thin tube passed via the vaginal canal, through the cervix, and into the uterus, where they will ideally attach, implant, and grow. If you are planning for egg freezing, consider visiting a highly reputed IVF clinic for a flawless experience.