Egg Freezing (Oocyte Cryo-Preservation)

What is Egg Freezing?

Egg Freezing (also known as oocyte cryo-preservation) is a multi-step process used to collect, freeze, and store mature eggs for potential use in future fertility treatment. The steps involved include:

• Controlled ovarian stimulation - usually 8-12 days of medication, and monitoring of response with hormone blood tests and transvaginal ultrasounds

• Oocyte pick up (OPU) procedure – transvaginal egg retrieval procedure performed under anaesthesia to collect eggs directly from the ovaries

• Cryo-preservation – mature and suitable eggs are frozen using vitrification (a rapid freezing technique) to preserve their quality for future use

• Storage – your frozen eggs are safely stored in our on-site cryo-storage facility until you’re ready to use them

If or when you choose to use your frozen eggs, they will be thawed, inseminated with sperm in the laboratory (using ICSI), and the resulting embryo transferred into the uterus.

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Who can benefit from Egg Freezing?

• Those individuals who wish to delay childbearing for personal, career, or relationship reasons (commonly known as social egg freezing)

• Those undergoing medical treatments that are likely to impact future fertility such as: ovarian and pelvic surgeries, chemotherapy or radiation treatments (commonly known as medical egg freezing)

• Those with a family history of early menopause or diminished ovarian reserve

• Those who wish to preserve their fertility prior to gender-affirming treatments or surgeries

Egg freezing is advised for those under the age of 35. Those over 35 years of age are advised that egg freezing may not be the most suitable option as increasing age reduces the confidence of a live birth from frozen eggs. Also, the number and quality of eggs retrieved each cycle diminishes with age and the number of eggs required to adequately preserve fertility only increases with age.

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