Egg Freezing Austin Fertility

FAQ: How good are the eggs from “egg freezing”?

Egg freezing, termed “oocyte cryopreservation”, is an option that is available for women in order to preserve their eggs for potential future use. The eggs from egg freezing are, at best, as good as they were prior to being cryopreserved. Younger women with good egg reserve parameters will obviously have “better” eggs. In the past, oocyte cryopreservation was mostly offered to reproductive-aged women who unfortunately were diagnosed with cancer as a method to preserve fertility potential prior to undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy which are harmful to eggs within the body. The technical aspects of oocyte cryopreservation have advanced greatly to where the technique is not longer considered “experimental” after a report by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in 2012. Oocyte cryopreservation is now being offered to women of reproductive age for many more reasons, including social reasons as well as endometriosis and other autoimmune disorders that may be adversely affecting a woman’s egg reserve. Long-term data are needed; however, egg freezing has been shown to more efficacious in recent years in terms of improved thaw survival rates, fertilization rates, and pregnancy rates. The improvements are due to the advancement of vitrification (a fast-freeze technique used in the IVF lab) as well as the use of ICSI to improve fertilization rates after oocyte thaw.