The egg freezing process, step by step
What is egg freezing?
Egg freezing, or oocyte cryopreservation in clinical talk, is a Fertility safeguarding method where eggs are separated from the ovaries and glimmer frozen so they can be utilized for a helped regenerative innovation (ART) strategy, as in-vitro treatment (IVF), later on.
What happens when you freeze your eggs?
Here, we’ll make sense of every one of the means engaged with freezing your eggs and suggest questions you can ask at the facility to ensure you’re completely ready.
Preparing for the system
Before the egg freezing can start, you’ll meet with a conceptive endocrinologist (REI) at a fertility center for a complete assessment. This is the very thing that you can normally hope to occur:
They’ll take your clinical history, do bloodwork and Fertility chemical testing, play out an actual test, and lead a vaginal ultrasound to survey your antral follicle count, or AFC (the quantity of eggs in your ovaries by then, also known as your ovarian save).
You’ll talk with the specialist about the egg freezing process (which you’ll as of now have a major advantage over after this post!) and timetable an arrangement half a month after the fact, after your experimental outcomes return.
The center will then foster your remarkable game plan, or “excitement convention.” Your definite feeling convention will be intended for you to expand the quantities of mature eggs recovered and to limit the gamble of ovarian hyperstimulation condition (OHSS), which seldom occurs during the Fertility treatment process when there are countless follicles present.
You’ll likewise talk with your PCP about the number of eggs you can hope to recover after feeling (and we’ll cover this a piece beneath). You could find that you really want more than one round of recovery before you get an adequate number of eggs for in-vitro treatment (IVF) — the strategy that will permit you to prepare and embed the frozen eggs in the wake of defrosting.
You’ll meet with an attendant to talk about your drugs, how to blend them and give them to yourself, and go over a layout of your schedule and an expected course of events for the egg recovery process.
Potential inquiries to pose at the fertility center:
Does the facility have insight in freezing eggs and, critically, defrosting eggs?
Would they be able to share their defrost rates for frozen eggs as well as pregnancy or live rates of birth from individuals returning to utilize their frozen eggs?
What number of eggs might be normal from one recovery?
Is there an opportunity you might require more than one pattern of egg sticking to freeze an adequate number of eggs?
What is the expense of the technique at the facility?
Does the center offer a markdown assuming you might have to accomplish more than one cycle?
Assuming you have inquiries during this cycle (which you probably will), is there an immediate contact for you to pose inquiries to?
Do they bunch cycles? (This implies a center has assigned days during the month to begin patients’ feeling cycles so this might mean less adaptability for you with regards to timing.)
Feeling and observing
At the point when it’s the ideal opportunity for feeling of the ovarian follicles (the designs that house and mature your eggs), there’s a commonplace request of tasks:
Beginning INJECTIONS: There are various conventions of when you will begin your infusions in view of where you are in your cycle, timing, and ovarian hold:
You might begin a short course of anti-conception medication pills, estrogen, lupron, or aygestin (a type of progesterone) before beginning infusions. The reason for these drugs is to assist with synchronizing your follicles so they’re all beginning simultaneously and will (ideally) be similarly receptive to medicine — and to assist with timing so you can do this interaction when it’s advantageous for you.
Most facilities will begin giving you these drugs during your period or after ovulation. You’ll likewise get another ultrasound and potentially more blood work before beginning your Fertility infusions.
Checking: Once you’re finished with these meds, you’ll get back to the center for another assessment through ultrasound and conceivable blood tests. Around then, you’ll begin the infusions assuming everything’s going true to form.
The nursing group will direct you through the infusions, however they’ll typically be a combo of menotropins (equivalent measures of follicle-animating chemical, or FSH, and luteinizing chemical, or LH) and gonadotropins (unadulterated FSH) to invigorate your ovaries to develop different eggs all at once.
You’ll probably give yourself the infusions in your paunch simultaneously every day, in the evening, for 10–12 back to back nights. Contingent upon how you answer the medications, your doctor might change your portion to be sequential.
Estimating your enemy of Mullerian chemical (AMH) ahead of time can provide you with a thought of how well you’ll answer ovarian excitement and the number of patterns of recovery you could expect — this is on the grounds that AMH is an incredible marker of ovarian hold.
MORE INJECTIONS: You’ll be given an extra infusion that you’ll take day to day (either Ganirelix or Cetrotride) generally beginning around day 5–7 of infusions to forestall ovulation during this interaction.
Whenever you start this extra shot, this is typically when your ovaries are beginning to broaden and where your facility will probably suggest decreasing energetic action (like running, HIIT works out, or other high-sway exercises) to limit the gamble of ovarian twist.
You might see a little redness or tingling around the infusion site. This is absolutely ordinary, says Dr. Alka .
Checked: You’ll keep on being observed at the center through ultrasounds and blood tests, ordinarily done toward the beginning of the day to get same-day results back on your labs and decide your dosing of infusions.
The quantity of visits still up in the air by your PCP, however they are generally more fanned out during the principal half of your cycle — then near consistently or each and every day constantly 50% of your cycle. You can typically expect somewhere in the range of 4–7 of these “checking” visits.
TRIGGER SHOT PRIOR TO RETRIEVAL: When you’re prepared for recovery, in light of the size of the follicles (as estimated by ultrasound) and estrogen blood levels, you’ll offer yourself a last chance known as the “trigger shot” of the chemical human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and additionally lupron around a day and a half before the methodology for conclusive egg development.
Potential inquiries to pose at the Fertility center:
What time does early day time observing start?
Who will do the sweeps? (Centers might have various individuals doing the observing ultrasound including your primary care physician, the doc of the day, nurture professionals, or potentially ultrasound experts.)
In view of the convention picked for you, how long would you be able to hope to do the infusions?
Egg recovery and recuperation
This progression in the process is additionally in some cases alluded to as “egg gathering.” Here may occur:
YOU’LL GET AN IV STARTED: When you show up, you’ll have an IV begun that will be utilized to manage sedation prescriptions to assist you with nodding off — as well as give beginning relief from discomfort after the method.
Sedation BEGINS: You’ll then be taken more time to the method room, have an oxygen cannula set right in front of you, and be given propofol sedation meds through your IV to nod off. (Dr. Alka says to consider this the best rest you’ll at any point have.) Throughout the whole egg freezing methodology, you’ll be breathing all alone (i.e., no intubation).
EGG RETRIEVAL BEGINS: Your PCP will utilize a vaginal test with a needle appended to it and, utilizing ultrasound direction, will get to your follicles. The needle will be embedded into your follicles and the liquid will be suctioned into tubes which are then given to the embryologist who will figure out the liquid to track down the eggs. There will be steady correspondence between the experts all through the cycle, and whenever they’ve gathered the eggs they can, you’ll be shipped off the recuperation room. The method will ordinarily keep going for 10–20 minutes.
YOU’LL FIND OUT HOW MANY EGGS YOU RETRIEVED: Once you’re conscious, you’ll figure out the number of eggs were recovered — yet you probably won’t know the number of mature eggs were frozen until 24 hours after the fact. (Per one 2017 review, around 14 eggs recovered will be experienced to the point of utilizing for individuals under 36, and around eight for 40-year-olds.) You’ll recuperate for around 30-an hour in the recuperation region and will then, at that point, be returning!
REST AND RECOVER: After the egg recovery, you’ll return home to rest. As indicated by Dr. Alka , commonplace side effects inside the initial 24 hours might incorporate light vaginal spotting, stomach squeezing, swelling, and blockage. Typically your facility will prescribe Tylenol and warming cushions to assist with the squeezing. Assuming that you have serious stomach torment, weighty vaginal dying, or feel weak or dizzy, contact your facility.
What are the achievement rates for egg freezing?
Since ovarian save changes with age, the normal number of eggs recovered changes with age as well. It’s significant, however, to take note of that very much like with numerous different parts of wellbeing, there’s variety between individuals with regards to the quantity of eggs you have as you age. While certain individuals might encounter steep decreases in egg amount, that decline might be considerably more steady for other people.
*For a very long time 36 and under: About 14 mature eggs on normal were recovered.
*For a very long time 37–39: About 10 mature eggs on normal were recovered.
*For a very long time 40–42: About nine mature eggs on normal were recovered.
*For a long time 43 or more: About seven mature eggs on normal were recovered.
What might be said about a “best” age for freezing your eggs?
The review made choice investigation models of egg freezing at various ages to sort out this very response, with exceptional regard for while egg freezing was the most gainful for expanding the likelihood of live births.
While contrasting individuals who froze their eggs with the people who didn’t, this is the very thing that the review’s creators found:
The best improvement in the likelihood of live birth was seen in 37-year-olds who attempted to consider seven years after the fact (51.6% possibility of a live birth in a 44-year-old who froze their eggs when they were 37, 21.9% in 44-year-olds who never froze their eggs and attempted to imagine without treatment at 44).
The most noteworthy generally speaking live rates of birth were in individuals who froze their eggs before they were 34.
The creators additionally made a trusty with the goal that you can really see what these numbers could resemble for you.
“Eventually, the more youthful you are the point at which you freeze your eggs, the better your future results as egg amount and quality will be better,” makes sense of Dr. Alka In any case, we should adjust the age at which you freeze your eggs with the probability that you may really have to utilize them — which is in the same place as studies supportive.”
What amount really does egg freezing cost?
Dr. Alka says that the specific cost of egg freezing shifts relying upon your center and district, however the cost range for the technique alone is ordinarily somewhere in the range of $5,000 and $10,000 per cycle. While considering the expenses of infusions and fruitfulness prescriptions, the cost of one egg freezing cycle goes up to around $10,000-$12,000. This cost for the most part incorporates one year of capacity for your eggs: The cost of long haul storerooms or autonomous storage spaces is about $500-$1,000 yearly. (Incipient organism creation and IVF medicines are nearer to $8,000-$12,000 on the grounds that the cycle requires more work in the embryology lab.)
All things considered, there are ways of getting monetary help to take care of the expenses of egg freezing:
Numerous fertility centers offer installment intends to make the costs more sensible.
Fertility treatment awards from associations like Baby Quest Foundation, the Cade Foundation, and the Hope for Fertility Foundation.
Many awards likewise exist explicitly for disease patients who intend to save their eggs before malignant growth medicines. You can observe more data about those awards at Livestrong Fertility, Simultaneously, an ever increasing number of organizations are remembering protection inclusion for these Fertility medicines for their representative medical advantage plans. In the event that your boss gave health care coverage doesn’t cover egg freezing, you can contact HR with instances of organizations that really do cover the strategy, as well as to get some information about advances or Health Savings Accounts .
The egg freezing procedure is also called oocyte cryopreservation. In this method, the eggs of the woman are harvested from the ovaries.
