At West Coast Fertility Centers, we are committed to helping women secure their future family. Our embryology team was one of the first in the United States to pioneer egg freezing, with over 100 babies born from frozen eggs in our center!

Egg Freezing is an increasingly popular procedure of fertility preservation which is done for both medical and elective reasons. West Coast Fertility Centers is committed to providing women an objective, evidence-based approach to fertility preservation, which includes assessment of reproductive potential and an individual plan. It is important that women are counseled in detail about all the alternatives to egg freezing, the expected pregnancy chances, and the number of cycles which may be required to bank enough eggs to ultimately achieve their desired family size. Eggs are frozen using the vitrification technique, which has proven superior for this procedure with thaw survival rates in the 90%-95% range.

Who Should Consider Egg Freezing?

Sometimes life has a plan that may differ from your own. Are you pursing your education or looking for your ideal partner? Working toward career advancement? Perhaps you have a medical issue which may affect your fertility or a family history of early menopause? Egg freezing can help pause your biologic clock until YOU are ready to have children. Women who may opt for egg freezing:

·       Want to preserve their eggs at their highest quality

·       Prior to receiving radiation and/or chemotherapy for cancer treatment

·       Prior to having their ovaries removed or operated on

·       Have a family history of early menopause or premature ovarian failure

·       Have endometriosis 

Egg Freezing Process

Evaluation: A consultation with a fertility specialist is key. Your medical history, a transvaginal ultrasound with antral follicle count (AFC), and an anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) level will help our physicians guide you in the best course of action and to determine if egg freezing is a good option for you. 

Ovarian Stimulation: Daily gonadotropin medication is self-administered by injection for 7 to 14 days to stimulate your ovaries to grow multiple follicles with eggs. Typically, 4 to 5 brief visits are required at either our center or a local facility to monitor your ovarian response with ultrasounds and hormone blood work. These monitoring visits allow the doctor to ensure safety and efficacy of the treatment.

Egg Retrieval: After completing your final “trigger shot” injection, you will undergo an egg retrieval. The egg retrieval is a minor procedure performed in our surgery center under light anesthesia. Your eggs are retrieved using a thin needle which passes through the vagina into each ovary under ultrasound guidance (there are no incisions). The procedure takes about 20 minutes, and you will need to be driven home afterwards.

Freezing and Storage: Mature eggs (MII) undergo rapid freezing by a procedure known as vitrification in our embryology laboratory. They are then stored in liquid nitrogen tanks. Our state-of-the-art laboratory is equipped for safe long-term storage on site, or we can ship eggs to a long-term storage facility. We take utmost care of your frozen eggs to ensure that your future is in great hands! 

How Many Eggs to Freeze?

The number of eggs to freeze must be individualized based on the woman age, ovarian reserve, desired family size and other factors. The estimated probabilities of having a child with the frozen eggs is outlined in the figure. It is often recommended to undergo several cycles of egg freezing to accumulate enough mature oocytes.

Predicted probabilities of having at least one, two, and three live-born children according to the number of mature oocytes cryopreserved for elective fertility preservation, according to age at oocyte retrieval and the associated oocyte to live-born child efficiency estimates:
(A) 30 to 34 years, 8.2% efficiency
(B) 35 to 37 years, 7.3% efficiency
(C) 38 to 40 years, 4.5% efficiency
(D) 41 to 42 years, 2.5% efficiency.

Reference: Doyle. Autologous vitrified oocyte IVF outcomes. Fertil Steril 2016.

Using Frozen Eggs

Eggs are thawed and fertilized with either partner or donor sperm. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is achieved with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). The resulting embryos are cultured in the laboratory for either 3 or 5 days at which point they can be transferred into the uterus which is prepared in advance with estrogen and progesterone hormones.

Is Egg Freezing Right for You?

Women are born with a limited number of eggs which rapidly decline with age, as does egg quality. Female fertility peaks in the mid-20s. Egg freezing is a viable option for many women who are postponing having children regardless of the reason.