Freezing Your Eggs
Preserving your future choices
Many women today are choosing to freeze their eggs as a proactive and empowering step towards securing their future fertility.
Life unfolds in different ways, and you might find yourself focusing on your career, waiting for the right partner, or there may be health concerns like cancer treatment.
You might simply not be feeling ready to start a family just yet. Egg freezing offers a way to safeguard your ability to have a child when the time feels right for you, alleviating worries about age impacting your fertility.
There are several reasons why women consider egg freezing:
- Personal Timing: You may not have found the right partner, or your career and personal goals are currently your focus. Egg freezing allows you to pursue these without the pressure of your biological clock.
- Medical Reasons: Certain medical conditions or treatments can, unfortunately, affect a woman’s fertility. Radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatments, or conditions like endometriosis, may affect the health of the ovaries and can have a negative impact on overall fertility.
- Age and Fertility Decline: We know that female fertility gently declines after the age of 35, which can affect both natural conception and the success rates of IVF. To help counter this natural decline, many women choose to freeze their eggs at an earlier point in their lives. For women who have eggs frozen before the age of 36, there’s an impressive 95% survival rate of the eggs, which remains strong at 85% for eggs collected after the age of 36. Ideally, freezing eggs before your early 30s offers the very best chance of a successful pregnancy in the future.
Many women today are choosing to freeze their eggs as a proactive and empowering step towards securing their future fertility.
Life unfolds in different ways, and you might find yourself focusing on your career, waiting for the right partner, or there may be health concerns like cancer treatment.
You might simply not be feeling ready to start a family just yet. Egg freezing offers a way to safeguard your ability to have a child when the time feels right for you, alleviating worries about age impacting your fertility.
There are several reasons why women consider egg freezing:
- Personal Timing: You may not have found the right partner, or your career and personal goals are currently your focus. Egg freezing allows you to pursue these without the pressure of your biological clock.
- Medical Reasons: Certain medical conditions or treatments can, unfortunately, affect a woman’s fertility. Radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatments, or conditions like endometriosis, may affect the health of the ovaries and can have a negative impact on overall fertility.
- Age and Fertility Decline: We know that female fertility gently declines after the age of 35, which can affect both natural conception and the success rates of IVF. To help counter this natural decline, many women choose to freeze their eggs at an earlier point in their lives. For women who have eggs frozen before the age of 36, there’s an impressive 95% survival rate of the eggs, which remains strong at 85% for eggs collected after the age of 36. Ideally, freezing eggs before your early 30s offers the very best chance of a successful pregnancy in the future.
What is Egg Freezing Treatment?
If you are considering preserving your future fertility, egg freezing, also known as Oocyte Cryopreservation, is a safe and effective method to help safeguard your ability to have a baby when the time is truly right for you.
We understand this is a significant decision, so we always recommend a consultation with us first to discuss your plans and health concerns. It’s a perfect, no-pressure opportunity to ask any questions you have about your egg-freezing journey and the treatment options available. We can discuss your specific needs and work together to create a tailored treatment plan that truly suits your individual circumstances. Our patients receive comprehensive support, thorough medical assessments, and ongoing personalised care every step of the way.
What Happens Afterwards?
When you are ready to embark on pregnancy, your eggs will be defrosted using a process called egg thawing. The freezing process naturally hardens the outer layer of the eggs, so it’s recommended that the sperm be gently injected into the eggs using a technique called Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) to aid fertilisation. The fertilised egg is then observed in the laboratory until it develops into an embryo, which is then transferred into your uterine cavity.
The Process of Egg Freezing
Your egg-freezing journey is designed to be as comfortable and supportive as possible:
- Initial Consultation: The journey begins with a consultation with our fertility specialist. During this session, we assess your medical history, hormone levels, and ovarian reserve through careful blood tests and ultrasound scans. This gives us a better understanding of your current ovarian reserve and fertility status.
- Ovarian Stimulation: To encourage your ovaries to produce a good number of eggs for freezing, you’ll undergo a course of hormonal injections. This typically lasts around 10–14 days and is closely monitored with regular scans and blood tests to track your response.
- Egg Collection Procedure: Once your eggs are mature and ready, they are retrieved in a minor outpatient procedure called egg collection. This is performed under light sedation to ensure your comfort and involves using a very fine needle guided by ultrasound to collect the eggs from your ovaries. The process usually takes around 20–30 minutes.
- Freezing the Eggs: After collection, your eggs are evaluated in our laboratory. Mature, high-quality eggs are then swiftly frozen using a special process called vitrification. This rapid freezing technique is designed to minimise ice crystal formation, which helps preserve the integrity of your eggs for future use.
- Egg Storage: Your frozen eggs are then stored securely in a temperature-controlled environment, ready to be used when you decide to pursue pregnancy. Healthy eggs can remain safely frozen for many years without compromising their quality.