Egg Freezing
You want to have a baby on your terms, when you’re ready, but you also understand delaying motherhood can impact your chances of getting pregnant. Advances in fertility care and technology offer an opportunity to take control of your reproductive health and postpone pregnancy until a later date. Freezing healthy eggs at an early age may optimize chances for future fertility and puts you in greater control of your reproductive health.
There are many reasons women delay motherhood, and sometimes the delay is not one of their choosing. Cancer and other diseases can severely damage a woman’s ability to have a child. A family history of early menopause can also prompt women to freeze their eggs. Some women undergoing IVF may decide to freeze eggs for later IVF cycles because they do not wish to freeze embryos for moral, religious, or ethical reasons.
Whatever the reason, we understand that preserving your fertility is a deeply personal decision. Our care team at Fertility Centers of New England will help you determine if egg freezing is the right option for you and tailor treatment to your particular situation. We’re also available to walk you through applicable egg freezing costs, which is a question many prospective patients have.
Frequently Asked Questions About Egg Freezing
Eggs for freezing are retrieved in the same way they would be for an IVF cycle. Once harvested, the egg undergoes a rapid freezing process called vitrification that allows it to enter a glass-like state.
The initial short-term storage will occur at our facility; however, long-term storage can be arranged at a special “cryobank,” where they securely maintain and indefinitely store frozen human specimens. Most likely eggs can be stored indefinitely, and once it comes time to thaw for fertilization, we anticipate that up to 80% of the cryopreserved eggs will survive the thawing process.
We offer short-term storage onsite in our laboratory, however, long-term storage can be arranged at a special cryobank where they can securely maintain and indefinitely store your eggs.
The cryopreservation of your eggs is a separate procedure, unrelated to the long-term storage of the frozen eggs or later treatments to thaw, fertilize, and transfer embryos to you. As such, separate fees are applied.
When the time is right, contact us to discuss what is required prior to thawing, fertilization, and transfer of eggs. It will take at least two months from you initially contacting us to the thawing of your eggs.
Whenever fertilizing previously cryopreserved eggs, we use a process called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which helps fertilization by directly injecting a single sperm into an egg. Then one or two resulting embryos will be painlessly transferred under ultrasound guidance.
Any remaining embryos that are deemed to be potentially viable can be frozen for later use if desired.
