Learn more about how eggs are frozen

As more women are delaying childbearing to pursue their educational and career goals, and find the right partner, our Austin egg freezing specialists are seeing an increased demand for egg freezing. Our fertility specialists find that women who are interested in preserving their fertility often have questions about how eggs are frozen. To help women decide if egg freezing is right for them, we have some more information about the process.

Our Austin egg freezing specialists use an ultra-rapid egg freezing process called vitrification. This process has revolutionized fertility preservation, making it possible to successfully freeze and thaw eggs.

After egg retrieval, an embryologist performs this leading-edge procedure to transform the liquids in each egg into a glass-like solid state. The egg freezing process uses high concentrations of cryopreservants, or a special anti-freeze substance. First, the embryologist places the egg in a bath with a solution that contains a lower concentration of anti-freeze and some sucrose to draw water out of the egg. They then place the egg in a highly concentrated bath of anti-freeze for less than one minute, while also freezing it.

The goal of vitrification is to prevent the formation of ice crystals that could damage the chromosomes in each egg during freezing and thawing.

Storing and using frozen eggs

Evidence suggests that a woman can safely store her eggs indefinitely. When she is ready to become pregnant, embryologists will work with our Austin egg freezing specialists to determine how many eggs to thaw and fertilize with sperm from the woman’s partner or her sperm donor.

Our embryologists are highly trained and experienced in selecting the best embryo for transfer, so the team at Texas Fertility Center can perform a single embryo transfer (SET). This procedure reduces the risk of having a potentially dangerous pregnancy with twins or higher-order multiples. After the embryo transfer, the woman’s fertility specialist will monitor her for pregnancy. Once she has conceived, her pregnancy should proceed just like any other.

Vitrification of embryos

Vitrification is also an option for women and couples who want to preserve their embryos. Our Austin egg freezing specialists are finding that frozen embryos may have higher pregnancy rates than fresh embryos, which is great news for hopeful parents who want to have a better chance of taking home a healthy baby.

Contact us to schedule an appointment with our Austin egg freezing experts and learn more about the egg freezing process.