At Alcove Fertility Center, we offer egg freezing as a fertility preservation option for women who wish to delay childbearing or who are facing fertility-threatening situations. The process of freezing eggs involves hormone stimulation and egg retrieval, followed by freezing and storage.
Our team of fertility specialists will work with you to understand your fertility goals and guide you through the egg freezing process. We will also provide support and resources to help you make informed decisions about your fertility.
Egg freezing can give women the opportunity to preserve their fertility and have children at a later time, without the need for hormone stimulation or egg retrieval when they are ready to start a family.
Egg freezing is a method of storing a woman’s unfertilised eggs to allow her to try to conceive at a later date, when natural conception would be unlikely. It may be seen as a way of preserving the possibility of fertility for women who are not in a position to become pregnant straight away, or whose fertility is at risk for medical reasons such as cancer treatment.
Frozen eggs may be stored for many years without significant deterioration. When the woman is ready to use her eggs, they are warmed, and then fertilized with sperm. The aim is for the fertilized egg to develop into an embryo, which can then be transferred to the woman’s uterus giving a chance of pregnancy.
Vitrification for egg freezing is a relatively new procedure and as such, it is difficult for even experts like us to provide precise figures for the chance of pregnancy after freezing, future thawing and fertilization. The chance of success is largely determined by the woman’s age at the time of freezing.
Currently, we expect the following success rates for egg freezing:
- for a woman aged 35 or under, one stimulated cycle would result in the collection of 10 – 12 eggs of which 7 – 9 would be suitable for vitrification and storage
- Approximately 80-90% of eggs would survive warming in the future
- Approximately 50-80% of surviving eggs would fertilize
- Approximately 80-90% of fertilized eggs would develop into embryos
- A single embryo would have a 20-35% chance of developing into a pregnancy
Success rates are lower for women over 35, which is why we recommend preserving your fertility sooner rather than later. If you’re over the age of 38, egg freezing may not be a suitable avenue. However, there are more immediate options that can be explored such as the use of donor sperm.
We always recommending speaking to a fertility specialist to better understand if egg freezing is an option for your particular circumstances
Egg freezing FAQ’s
The expected success of egg freezing can be ascertained from an initial assessment of the ovarian reserve using a blood test for Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) and an ultrasound scan of the ovaries and uterus. The AMH test can provide insight into the number of eggs remaining, although it does not give information about the quality of the eggs.
This will help guide your fertility specialist to determine if egg freezing is right for you.
If you have a low AMH, your fertility specialist will discuss if egg freezing a good option for you. Although the AMH test can provide insight into the number of eggs remaining, it does not give information about the quality of the eggs. Your fertility specialist will take into consideration the results of the AMH test, your age and other individual factors before recommending egg freezing.
You might consider freezing your eggs
- if your fertility is at risk from a serious illness such as cancer.
- or because you are not in a position to have a baby right now and would like the opportunity to start a family beyond the age at which fertility naturally declines.
If you are contemplating egg freezing you can also consider other options which may be available to you, such as embryo freezing, donor insemination (for more immediate rather than delayed pregnancy) or the possible use of donor eggs if your own ovarian function is likely to be lost.
Your fertility specialist will discuss the ideal number of eggs required to give you the best possible chance of pregnancy in the future. The amount of eggs collected will depend on individual circumstances such as age at the time of the egg collection and other fertility factors. Storage fees include up to 10 eggs per batch.
You can freeze your eggs for many years until you decide you’re ready to use them. The process of using frozen eggs involves thawing the eggs and finishing the IVF process. The thawed eggs will be fertilised either with your partner’s sperm or donor sperm to create embryos. The best quality embryo will then be transferred into the uterus at the optimal time of your cycle, with the hope of resulting in a pregnancy. Any other embryos created from the thawed batch of eggs will be frozen for future use.
Like most medical procedures, there are potential risks that women may want to consider before they freeze their eggs. Some of the risks include:
- Risk of complication during egg collection procedure (although this risk is minimal)
- No eggs being collected
- Some eggs may not survive the freezing process
- Some thawed mature eggs may not fertilise
- Transferred embryos may not result in pregnancy