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Egg Freezing is becoming a popular choice in today’s world, as many women opt to delay starting a family—whether for career goals, personal reasons, or not finding the right partner. For those who want to preserve their fertility but aren’t ready for pregnancy yet, egg freezing is the perfect option.
But how egg freezing work? Simply put, egg freezing, or oocyte cryopreservation, is a medical intervention that enables women to freeze their eggs to use in the future.
Egg freezing is a procedure in which a woman’s eggs (oocytes) are removed, frozen, and preserved for future use. The eggs can be stored in their frozen state for several years without much loss of quality, enabling women to choose when they wish to conceive a baby in the future.
To answer the question, How egg freezing work, we’ll go through the main steps involved in the process. It’s important to note that egg freezing is a multi-step procedure that involves ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, and freezing.
The first part of the egg freezing process involves ovarian stimulation. Since a woman’s natural menstrual cycle only produces one mature egg per month, doctors need to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs at once. This is done using synthetic hormones that mimic the body’s natural follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).
For 10-14 days, the woman injects herself with hormones, usually a mix of FSH, LH, and occasionally GnRH agonists or antagonists to avoid early ovulation.
At this stage, the woman’s response to the hormones is strictly monitored by the fertility clinic. Ultrasounds and routine blood work are used to track the development of the eggs. Monitoring enables doctors to adjust hormone dosages if needed and aids in the proper development of the eggs.
Once the eggs are ripe, the second stage of the process of freezing eggs is egg retrieval. The process, also referred to as aspiration, is typically carried out under gentle sedation or anesthesia. The physician will use a thin needle connected to an ultrasound probe that is inserted into the ovaries to harvest the eggs.
In the process of egg retrieval, a sequence of follicles (sacs filled with fluid that contain the eggs) is suctioned to retrieve the eggs. The number of eggs retrieved depends on how many eggs develop. On average, 10 to 20 eggs are retrieved, but the figure can be more or less.
After the eggs are harvested, they are then evaluated for quality and maturity. Not every egg will freeze well—only the mature eggs are chosen. These are then frozen with a method of vitrification, a form of cryopreservation that stops ice crystals from forming and destroying the eggs.
The mature eggs are kept in liquid nitrogen at very low temperatures, practically stopping all biological processes and enabling the eggs to be kept viable for several years. Egg freezing enables females to save their fertility potential without concern about the natural aging process impacting the quality of their eggs.
The reasons why women choose egg freezing include :
Delayed Childbearing: Many women choose to bank their eggs when they are young (usually in their late 20s or early 30s) to have their fertility reserved for use at a later point in time. Egg quality declines with the advancement of a woman’s age, and therefore, banking them early offers a greater probability of success when she decides to conceive.
Medical Reasons: Women who are diagnosed with diseases such as cancer, which demand the use of chemotherapy in their treatment, might choose to freeze eggs before receiving treatment, since the treatments can affect fertility.
Career and Personal Ambitions: Others prefer to hold back on getting pregnant to pursue their careers or personal ambitions. Egg freezing provides them with an option to defer motherhood without jeopardizing future fertility.
Single Women: Women who are not yet in a relationship might opt for freezing their eggs to maintain their fertility for when they are ready to have a child with a partner.
Egg freezing is mostly safe, but there are some risks and considerations:
Hormonal Side Effects: The hormone injections that are given while undergoing ovarian stimulation can cause side effects such as mood swings, bloating, and headaches. Rarer side effects include ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in women, which can make the ovaries swell and result in serious complications.
Egg Quality: Egg quality retrieved can also differ based on the age of the woman, the number of eggs retrieved, and other variables. Women who are under 35 tend to have the best success rates for egg freezing.
Financial Cost: The financial cost of egg freezing can be substantial. On average, the procedure itself can range from $6,000 to $15,000 or more, depending on the clinic, medication, and other circumstances.
No Success Assured: Although egg freezing preserves fertility, it is not assured that the eggs will lead to a successful pregnancy in the future. Success is determined by various factors such as the age of the woman when freezing and the number of eggs retrieved.
After the eggs are frozen, they can be stored indefinitely. When the woman is ready to conceive, the eggs can be thawed, mixed with sperm in a laboratory (using in vitro fertilization or IVF), and inserted into the uterus.
The freezing of eggs provides females with a means of having control over their reproductive well-being, with the added option of when and whether they may wish to have children.
Although the egg freezing work might sound daunting, it is a smooth and easy experience when conducted by capable and reliable doctors. Dr. Partha Das, being one of the leading IVF experts in Dubai, offers more than 20 years of experience after having worked in high-tech care environments, treating challenging gynecological, infertility, and genetic cases. He has assisted numerous couples to realize their dream of having children.
Dr Partha Das is a highly skilled fertility/IVF Physician specializing in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr Partha consults and manages patients presenting with complex gynecological, male and female infertility issues and management of recurrent miscarriage and IVF failures.
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