There are various reasons for delaying parenthood. Fertility preservation through egg freezing may be a solution for women who are not ready to conceive yet but want to keep their options open for the future.
Egg freezing is a method of fertility preservation that allows you to store your eggs for use at a later date. Because egg quality declines with age, freezing your eggs while you are younger gives you the best possible chance of a successful pregnancy when you are ready in the future.
Egg freezing may also be recommended if you want to have a child in the future but are not ready to conceive yet for personal reasons. Fertility preservation can provide reassurance that your eggs are safely preserved at their current quality. However, it is not a guarantee of a successful pregnancy and live birth.
Your initial consultation with Dr Parmar will involve a discussion of your reasons for egg freezing. You may also undergo fertility testing to provide a more complete picture of your fertility and to understand whether egg freezing is appropriate for your situation.
If you decide to go forward with egg freezing, Dr Parmar will collect your eggs in a quick procedure following a period of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) injections to encourage your ovarian follicles to develop several mature eggs.
The eggs are cooled and frozen using a technique known as vitrification, which helps to prevent damage. The frozen eggs are then kept under constant monitoring in Genea Fertility’s cryostorage facility.
When you are ready to use your eggs, they can be thawed and fertilised with your partner’s or a donor’s sperm via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), before transfer to your uterus or that of a surrogate for pregnancy.
Embryo freezing may be recommended as an alternative option to egg freezing if you have a partner and need to preserve your fertility. Embryo freezing is used for medical reasons, such as treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Your eggs will be fertilised with your partner’s sperm through IVF treatment, and any resulting embryos will be frozen and stored for the future.
For women with current male partners, embryo freezing is sometimes recommended as it tends to have higher success rates than freezing eggs alone. This is because not all eggs will survive the freezing and thawing process, or fertilise successfully and develop into viable embryos.
Sperm freezing, also known as sperm cryopreservation, is a fertility preservation option for men. Most commonly, sperm freezing is considered for men at risk of infertility from occupational hazards, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or other medical treatment that may affect their reproductive potential.
The provided sperm sample is washed of debris and concentrated before being frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen until needed for fertility treatment with IVF or ICSI.
