Egg freezing
There are many reasons to freeze your eggs.
Having children later in life.
For both personal and financial reasons, many women choose to have children later in life. As women age, egg health drops off significantly. By freezing young, healthy eggs in your 20s, you can improve your chances of a successful pregnancy later in life when you’re ready to be a mom.
Undergoing cancer treatments
Many cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can injure or destroy a healthy egg supply. Certain cancers may require surgical removal of a fallopian tube, an ovary, or the entire uterus. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and would like to have children in the future, egg freezing is a terrific option. The procedure is essentially the same as the beginning stages of IVF.
We offer a number of cryopreservation services, and we’re happy to discuss all of your options with you to find the best path for preserving your fertility.
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During this step, you’ll begin hormonal treatments by either taking a pill or an injectable medication). This medication encourages your ovaries to produce more mature eggs than they would naturally. The end goal is to get at least three mature and fully-developed eggs. We’ll track your egg development with blood tests and ultrasounds. It takes time for your body to adjust to the hormones and nurture your new eggs, so this stage can take several weeks
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During this step, you’ll begin hormonal treatments by either taking a pill or an injectable medication). This medication encourages your ovaries to produce more mature eggs than they would naturally. The end goal is to get at least three mature and fully-developed eggs. We’ll track your egg development with blood tests and ultrasounds. It takes time for your body to adjust to the hormones, so this stage can take several weeks.
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Once you’ve produced enough mature eggs, you’ll receive a hormone injection that induces ovulation (releasing the mature eggs). After about 36 hours, you’ll return to our office for the egg retrieval procedure. An anesthesiologist will place you under IV sedation and our specialists will remove the eggs. This only takes about 15 minutes, and you’ll rest comfortably afterwards in one of our recovery rooms. After about 30 minutes, you’ll be able to go home.
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Flash-freezing is a special way to freeze your eggs and embryos that avoids trauma to the cells. Water is removed from the eggs or embryos and replaced with an “antifreeze”. Then the egg is quickly brought to a very cold temperature. By removing the water and freezing it quickly, your eggs or embryos are safe from damaging ice crystal formation.