What is Egg freezing?

Egg freezing, called as oocyte cryopreservation in medical terms, refers to the procedure of freezing and preserving a woman’s eggs so that she can later use to get pregnant with her biological child.

It is an acknowledged fact that there is an exponential decline in the fertility of women after 30 years of age, after which point there is a significant decrease in the quantity and quality of the eggs. Egg freezing helps stop a woman’s biological clock and assists in preserving her reproductive potential.

In egg freezing, as opposed to the fertilized egg freezing procedure which is also called as embryo freezing, there is no need of a male partner or a sperm donor at the time of egg freezing as eggs are preserved without being fertilised.

What is the process for Egg Freezing ?

A woman who plans egg freezing is given fertility injections to stimulate ovaries so that she is able to produce a large number of eggs. These eggs are then collected under minor anaesthetic procedure from the ovaries, frozen unfertilized, and cryopreserved at -197 degrees, for later use.

The woman who gets her eggs frozen serves a recipient for her own eggs, when she is ready to conceive at a later stage in her life. The frozen eggs are thawed in the lab before being fertilised by the sperm from the woman’s male partner or any other sperm donor. The fertilised egg i.e embryo, is then implanted into the woman’s womb.

There are reports that confirm successful pregnancy and childbirth from eggs that were frozen for a period of 5 years. Although preserving eggs for a longer duration does not seem to have any negative effect, it must, however, be noted that the older the woman gets, the more difficult it becomes for her to complete the pregnancy till term without any complications such as miscarriage, high blood pressure, diabetes, growth restriction in the foetus, etc.

Why opt for Egg Freezing?

Egg freezing is a suitable option for women who are not prepared for pregnancy at the moment but would eventually like to conceive and deliver their biological child.

There are a few scenarios when egg freezing can assist the currently fertile women to conceive at a later stage in their life. Let us learn more about the few of the most common scenarios below:

• Some women prefer to preserve their younger eggs for future use. Women who are around 30 years of age and do not have any immediate plans of starting a family, may plan to undergo the egg freezing procedure to be able to enjoy motherhood in a few years’ time.
• Women who are around 30 years of age and have not found a suitable partner but have plans to have children once they find a suitable partner, may plan to undergo the egg freezing procedure to be able to enjoy motherhood later.
• Chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer treatment which are known to reduce the fertility. Egg freezing before undergoing any of these treatment procedures assist the woman to have biological children at a later date.
• If a woman is undergoing IVF procedure but her male partner isn’t able to produce sufficient sperms on the day her eggs are retrieved, and there is no back up frozen Sperm sample available, she may have to get her egg frozen and preserved.

Egg freezing procedures enjoy a fairly high success rate. As many as 75 to 80% of eggs survive the freezing and thawing procedures and result in successful fertilization and implantation of the embryo into the uterus.

There are approximately 40 to 50% chances of pregnancy after successful implantation. The younger you are at the time of egg freezing, the higher are the chances of pregnancy and healthy childbirth.