Egg Freezing or Oocyte Cryopreservation

Egg freezing is a method of preserving a woman’s fertility so she can try and have children at a later date. 

Firstly, you’ll need to be tested for any infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis. This has no bearing on whether you can freeze your eggs or not, but is to ensure that affected egg samples are stored separately to prevent contamination of other samples.

You'll then start the IVF process, which usually takes around two to three weeks to complete. Normally this will involve taking drugs to boost your egg production and help the eggs mature. When they’re ready, they’ll be collected whilst you’re under general anaesthetic or sedation.

At this point, instead of mixing the eggs with sperm (as in conventional IVF) a cryoprotectant (freezing solution) will be added to protect the eggs. The eggs will then be frozen either by cooling them slowly or by vitrification (fast freezing) and stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen. Latest statistics show that vitrification is more successful than the slow cooling method.

Most patients under 38 years of age will have on around 7-14 eggs collected, although this isn’t always possible for patients with low ovarian reserves (low numbers of eggs). When you want to use them, the eggs will be thawed and those that have survived intact will be injected with your partner’s or donor’s sperm.

Preparation 

Before the egg-freezing process begins, a doctor will take a comprehensive medical history with a focus on fertility, assess the regularity of the menstrual cycle, and perform a range of blood tests to assess hormone levels.

A woman’s ovaries usually release one egg per month. When fewer eggs are available for freezing, the chances of a successful pregnancy are lower.

In order to maximize the number of available eggs, a woman will undergo hormone treatment to stimulate the production of more eggs. This treatment normally requires a woman to inject herself with hormones at home between one and three times a day.

Most women will also take birth control pills for at least a month before receiving the hormone injections. This suppresses the natural cycle and increases the effectiveness of the hormones.

The number and type of hormones vary. Treatment will normally include:

around 2 weeks of injections with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), which encourage the ovaries to produce more eggsan injection of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) about halfway through the cycle, which prevents ovulation from taking place too early in the cyclean injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to trigger ovulation.

A doctor will perform regular blood tests to monitor the effects of hormone treatments. The woman will also have at least one ultrasound to detect ovulation and to assess egg development.

Procedure

The steps of egg freezing or oocyte cryopreservation are:

Ovarian stimulation: begins with transvaginal ultrasound examination and blood tests to determine the number of oocytes and ovarian function and administering ovarian-stimulation medication for 9-12 days. The doses required vary among patients, depending on their ovarian functions. Follow-up ultrasounds will see whether the egg size and number meet the specifications. If it is, administering another medication will help the eggs mature.

Egg retrieval: is performed by transvaginal ultrasound-guided needle aspiration and suction to harvest the eggs from the follicles. 

Simply The doctor inserts a needle into the ovarian follicles to retrieve the eggs after they ripen.

It is a minor procedure performed under IV sedation given by an anesthesiologist. Patients must not eat or drink for at least 8 hours before the procedure. Egg retrieval takes around 30-45 minutes, depending on the number of retrievable oocytes.

The doctor will normally use ultrasound to guide the procedure. However, if the eggs are not visible during ultrasound imaging, the doctor may perform abdominal surgery to remove them.

With this more invasive approach, the doctor makes a small incision in the abdomen under sedation and pain medication and inserts a needle to extract the egg.

An embryologist selects healthy eggs for freezing: Once the doctor has retrieved the egg, freezing will need to take place as soon as possible. However, the eggs are full of water, which can become damaging ice crystals if freezing occurs immediately.

To prevent this, the doctor injects a special solution into the eggs before freezing them.

In the future, when the woman is ready to use her eggs, she will undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF).

With IVF, a fertility specialist fertilizes the egg in a lab, using sperm from either the woman’s partner or from a donor.

If the procedure works, the egg and sperm develop into an embryo that undergoes implantation in the woman’s uterus a few days later. Most fertility clinics try to grow several embryos at once to increase the chances of a successful pregnancy.

Advantages of egg freezing or oocyte cryopreservation

• Suitable for women who want to freeze their eggs for future in vitro fertilization when they are ready for pregnancy.
• Suitable for those who want to freeze their eggs before chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which can damage the ovaries.
• Suitable for those with genetic disorders causing premature ovarian failure, or those with ovarian dysfunction such as chocolate cyst.
• To treat infertility with IVF. If the male partner has ejaculation problems or produces no sperm on the day of egg retrieval, freeze the eggs for future use.
• To freeze the eggs for donation.

Reasons that women freeze their eggs

Some major reasons

Career and educational plans: Women who wish to pursue advanced degrees or demanding careers may freeze their eggs when they are young to ensure access to healthy eggs later on.

Personal circumstances: Women who want to have a child with a partner but have not yet found one may freeze their eggs for future use.

Cancer: Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments typically interfere with and sometimes end fertility. Reproductive cancers might lead to the removal of a woman’s ovaries.

Egg freezing might help reduce the impact of some cancer treatments on fertility.

Infections, organ failure, and other health concerns: A wide range of health problems can harm egg quality and fertility, such as endometriosis, a condition that causes uterine tissue to grow outside of the womb.

Freezing eggs offers hope to women who are receiving treatment for a serious illness that may reduce fertility.

WHY FREEZE YOUR EGGS BEFORE YOUR 30s

Younger women have significantly higher success rates than older women when freezing eggs.

Women who wish to undergo egg freezing should do so as early as possible.

An optimal time to freeze your eggs is in your 20s and early 30s, while you have a higher ovarian reserve (the number of eggs in your ovaries) and healthier eggs. Sometimes the future seems a long way off. While you focus on your career, finding the right partner or addressing medical issues, time can run out.

Most clinics work with women who are under 40 years old. Some clinics place restrictions on women who are 40–49 years of age. Few will allow women over the age of 45 years to freeze their eggs.

Whatever your reasons, if you think you might want a family someday but aren’t ready right now or in the near future, egg freezing gives you the choice to decide when the time is right for you.

Successful Fertilization Rates of Frozen Eggs

The success rate depends on the quantity and quality of the eggs and their ages. Usually, the survival rate of frozen-thawed oocytes is around 80-90%. The success rate of fertilization is 70-80%. After successful fertilization, the embryo will let growing for another five days, reaching the blastocyst stage, which is suitable for implantation. The success rate of development to the blastocyst stage is around 60%.

How longs eggs can be stored

Recent legislation changes in the UK mean that the amount of time that you can store frozen eggs has been extended from 10 to 55 years.

Although you can now store eggs for later use up to a maximum of 55 years from when they are first placed in storage, you will need to renew your consent every ten years. You will need to fill out a consent form, and if you need to renew your consent, you will be kept up to date by the clinic where your eggs are stored. For this reason, you need to keep your contact details up to date with the clinic, or there’s a risk of your eggs being taken out of storage and disposed of.

From a technical perspective, frozen eggs can be stored for an indefinite amount of time. Once eggs are frozen, are stored in liquid nitrogen at a very low temperature, which means that they do not age or deteriorate over time. This allows them to be stored for long periods of time without losing their viability.

You shouldn’t have to pay the entire egg freezing storage cost up front, but you will need to continue to pay for egg storage over time or your clinic might dispose of eggs where storage has not been paid for. 

Cost of egg freezing

The cost of egg freezing can vary depending on a number of factors, including where you live, the clinic you choose, and the reason you are freezing your eggs. You can only freeze eggs at the NHS’s expense if you need to do so for medical reasons. On the NHS, freezing eggs for social reasons will not be paid for and you will need to fund this yourself.

Costs will include an initial consultation, hormone treatments to stimulate egg production, the egg retrieval procedure, and the cost of freezing and storing the eggs. It’s important to discuss the costs with your doctor and the clinic you choose in advance to make sure that you are aware of all the costs that are involved, and to get a better idea of what to expect.

Freeze and share programme

Most of the countries have Freeze and share programmes like UK .

Freeze and Share makes it possible for you to freeze your eggs for free because you keep half the eggs retrieve for your own later use and make the other half available to give another family the chance to have a baby of their own.

Offer of free freezing eggs may be for time limit like mostly two years to five years.