EF

Egg Freezing


Many women and persons born with ovaries may choose to start a family later in life. Through cryopreservation, egg freezing is a form of fertility treatment that enables someone to preserve the youngest and most viable remaining versions of their eggs for future possible use. Egg Freezing is also an excellent way for transgender male patients who are planning gender affirmation surgery to preserve their options for future biological offspring.

 

Egg Freezing is for:

  • Couples, single women or persons born with ovaries but who are not ready to start a family or have another biological child

  • Women with ovarian diseases such as endometriosis, persistent large ovarian cysts or ovarian torsion

  • Women or transgender men undergoing surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment that may cause damage to their ovaries

The process,
explained simply.

  • No matter what your reason is for considering egg freezing, you’ll undergo basic fertility screening testing which would include some bloodwork and an ultrasound to look at the ovaries. Depending on the results of these tests, egg freezing may not be necessary or feasible, or the doctor might recommend alternative treatments to start.

  • The doctor will review your diagnosis with you and discuss your treatment options. If you decide to proceed with egg freezing, our doctor and staff will go over the entire process, including financials, to ensure that the process is smooth for you.

  • The goal of egg freezing is to stimulate your ovaries to safely produce as many mature eggs as possible for you, via at-home daily hormone injections, which activate the process that usually leads up to ovulation. You will obtain regular bloodwork and ultrasounds to ensure that you are progressing as expected, over the 2 week treatment window.

  • 34 to 36 hours after your final hormonal injections, your eggs will be retrieved, while you are under monitored Anesthesia, via a small needle attached to an ultrasound probe that passes through your vaginal wall and directly into the egg houses in your ovaries which are known as ovarian follicles. The retrieved eggs will then be analyzed in the laboratory, where the number of mature eggs will be counted and processed for cryopreservation (freezing).

  • The mature eggs will then be quickly frozen in a process called vitrification, which allows eggs to be stored in cryopreservation tanks which are filled with liquid nitrogen until ready for use, up to decades later.