How does egg freezing work?

Many women who are interested in fertility preservation want to know how the procedure works. Our Austin egg freezing specialists, who are experts in the process, can guide women through every step. Women can rest assured that their reproductive future is in experienced and compassionate hands at Texas Fertility Center.

How egg freezing works

When our physicians explain how egg freezing works, they first discuss the steps in the process, which are very similar to those used in IVF.

• The first step is ovarian stimulation, in which a woman takes fertility medications to stimulate the growth and development of multiple follicles, which contain the eggs. Our Austin egg freezing specialists carefully monitor patients to determine when the follicles are mature and the patient is ready for egg retrieval.
• The second step is egg retrieval. During this outpatient procedure, a woman is lightly sedated, and one of our egg freezing specialists retrieves her mature eggs from the follicles in her ovaries.
• The third step is egg freezing, which requires a different process. Eggs are more fragile than embryos and sperm, so our egg freezing specialists use a special freezing protocol known as vitrification, which improves the freeze and thaw rates for eggs.

Understanding vitrification

Vitrification is an ultra-rapid freezing process that transforms the liquids in each egg into a glass-like solid state. Vitrification prevents the formation of ice crystals that could damage the chromosomes in each egg.

After our Austin egg freezing specialists freeze a woman’s eggs, they will be stored until she is ready to use them. At that time, embryologists will work with the woman’s physician to determine the number of eggs to thaw and fertilize with sperm from her partner or a donor. Because our embryologists are experienced in selecting the best embryo for transfer, Texas Fertility Center can perform a single embryo transfer, or SET, to reduce the likelihood of having a risky pregnancy involving multiples. After one of our fertility specialists performs the embryo transfer, he or she will monitor the patient for pregnancy.

If you have additional questions about how egg freezing works, please contact us to make an appointment with our knowledgeable and caring Austin egg freezing specialists. You can take control of your fertility and your future.