Some hopeful parents may want to consider freezing embryos after IVF

Freezing embryos after IVF can be a great option when an in vitro fertilization cycle produces many healthy embryos. The world of fertility has changed. Our Austin fertility doctors can now safely freeze and thaw eggs using a fast-freeze technique called vitrification. This means that egg freezing is now accessible to women exploring fertility preservation and hopeful parents undergoing IVF at Texas Fertility Center (TFC).

Why would you want to think about freezing eggs after IVF?

Freezing eggs after IVF is important for a specific reason. Every woman who visits our Austin fertility doctors will respond differently to medications for ovarian stimulation, the first step of IVF. Some women will produce only a few eggs, while others will produce many.

During an IVF cycle, our embryologists will take eggs that were retrieved from a woman’s ovaries and combine them with sperm from her partner or chosen sperm donor. The goal is for the sperm to fertilize the eggs, which will become embryos. In cases where a woman produces many eggs and all of them fertilize to become embryos, certain moral issues can arise.

For example, maybe a woman produces 20 eggs, 15 of them become embryos and the couple only wants two children. If the couple undergoes two successful embryo transfers and has two healthy babies, then they have 13 embryos remaining. They then must decide what to do with them.

• The couple can pay to keep them in frozen storage.
• They can allow other couples to adopt their embryos.
• The couple can donate their embryos to science.

The first option can be expensive, while the second and third can be emotional and raise many ethical concerns for parents. To avoid these concerns, hopeful parents can investigate egg freezing after IVF. Most people don’t have the same attachment and moral questions about eggs that they do about embryos.

How does freezing eggs after IVF work?

Egg freezing after IVF is simple. Rather than fertilizing all the eggs after egg retrieval, the embryologist will only fertilize a few of them. The team will then freeze the remaining eggs. If the hopeful parents still want more children after transferring all their existing embryos, our Austin fertility doctors can recommend thawing some of the eggs to fertilize with sperm.

More hopeful parents are finding that egg freezing after IVF provides peace of mind for them. They no longer need to worry about making complicated and emotional decisions about what to do with unused embryos.

If you have questions about freezing your eggs after IVF, contact us for an appointment. We are happy to help you grow your family.