When Should You Freeze Your Eggs And For How Long

Oocyte cryopreservation or egg freezing is becoming popular among women who want to embrace motherhood in their late thirties or early forties due to their personal reasons. This process is no longer seen as part of infertility treatment but as a procedure that empowers women to take control of her life and body, which enables them to plan their pregnancies based on their convenience and desire rather than by their age or biological clock.

It is a procedure that helps preserve the reproductive potential of women by collecting her eggs from the ovaries and freezing them unfertilized that can be used later. The process does not require the male partner as in the regular in-vitro fertilization treatments. When needed, the eggs can be thawed, combined with the sperm, and placed in the uterus of the woman for the pregnancy to take place.

Usually, the eggs can be stored for as much time as the woman wants, and the success rate depends mainly upon thawing and the egg quality at the time of freezing. The kind of preservation technique used also plays a vital role in the longevity of the preserved eggs.

The conditions in which women can consider egg freezing are:

1.ADDRESS THE AGING CONCERN - It is a well-known fact that age and fertility are inversely proportional. Once a woman reaches her thirties, her fertility rate decreases drastically. Egg freezing provides her the opportunity to preserve the high quality, healthy eggs that can be used later when she is ready for pregnancy. Once the eggs are removed and froze, they no longer age.

2.IN VITRO FERTILIZATION – During the IVF process, if the male partner is not available during the egg retrieval period or produces less amount of semen than average, the retrieved eggs can be frozen that can be used later in the process.

3.SUFFERING FROM ILLNESS - If the woman is suffering from any illness that can affect her fertility rates like autoimmune disease or sickle cell anemia, it is suggested to opt for egg freezing.

4.CANCER TREATMENT – Egg freezing is a viable option for women undergoing cancer treatments like chemotherapy or radiotherapy as the treatments drastically decrease the fertility rates.The frozen eggs before the treatment help women to have biological children in the future.

freezing technique provides women to lead a stress-free life and help pursue a career or dream of their choice and embrace motherhood when they are ready without bothering about their age and decreasing fertility levels.

If you are one among many, who want to preserve your reproductive potential and attain freedom from fertility aging contact Guru Hospital, Madurai.

Blog reviewed by: Dr. B. Kalpana

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How is ICSI different from IVF?

Thanks to the wonders of assisted reproductive technology (ART), researchers and doctors have made many astonishing breakthroughs with several fertility treatments. There has been an exponential growth of many ART procedures during the past decade.  The world of assisted reproductive technology can seem like a minefield, particularly when you’re new to the acronyms, for words you may otherwise not have come across.

What is IVF?

IVF stands for in vitro fertilization. IVF is not a single procedure but a series of procedures. It’s one of the more generally known types of assisted reproductive technology. In vitro fertilization is a Latin phrase that means “in glass” (since early biological experiments involved cultivation of tissues outside the living organism in glass containers such as test tubes or petri dishes).  IVF crafts a controlled environment that comprehensively enhances the opportunity for fertilization of the egg. 

To put it more bluntly, egg and sperm are combined in a lab for IVF treatment (so the “glass” in the name)—incubated, and carefully monitored throughout the fertilization process.  Over the course of 3 to 5 days, successfully fertilized eggs develop into embryos and subsequently, the embryo quality is scrutinized for transfer or freezing or for further culturing and development. For the woman, though, the IVF procedure actually starts weeks earlier.  The specific events of each path in IVF may be similar for all patients, what varies is how their body responds at each stage.

What Is ICSI?

Although ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) has been around since 1992, it’s increasingly being used in recent times to help couples struggling with infertility. ICSI is a specialized procedure of ART that is used mostly commonly in cases of severe male infertility, after failed fertilization attempts with conventional IVF, or after egg freezing (oocyte preservation). ICSI involves injecting a single sperm directly into an egg using a fine glass needle (on contrary to standard IVF where the sperm has to penetrate the egg by itself).  

1. ICSI is typically used in cases of male infertility, including:

• Oligospermia (Very low sperm count)
• Teratozoospermia (increased percentage of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa that affects male fertility )
• Asthenozoospermia(Poor sperm motility)

2. ICSI is also used in cases of retrograde ejaculation (Semen travels into the bladder instead of going out through the urethra during ejaculation). 

3. ICSI can also help men who have obstruction in vasa deferentia (ducts that carry the sperm from the testicles to the urethra for ejaculation such as following vasectomy or trauma) or in cases of congenital absence of the Vas deferens

4.  Other evidence-based reasons for the practice of ICSI include:

Previous IVF cycles having few or no fertilized eggs: ICSI may be tried in the case when a good number of eggs are retrieved, and sperm counts look healthy, but no eggs get fertilized.

• Cryopreserved sperm is being used: ICSI may be recommended when the fresh sperm don’t appear especially active.
• Cryopreserved oocytes are being used: sometimes, vitrification of eggs after egg freezing can cause hardening of the egg’s shell which may set hurdles for fertilization, in that case- IVF with ICSI may help overcome this problem.
• IVM (in vitro maturation) is being used: IVM is an IVF technology where retrieval of immature oocytes from the ovaries with hormonal injections. They undergo the final stages of maturation in the lab culture using hormones or a naturally occurring oocyte protein dimer. More research is still ongoing, but it may be that IVM along with ICSI is a good option. 
• When PGD is performed: PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) is genetic testing of pre-implantation stage embryos or oocytes for genetic defects. ICSI is used commonly  during PGD to eliminate the risk of contamination from extraneous sperm DNA

Difference between ICSI and IVF at a glance:

The ICSI procedure is appropriate for couples with major male factor infertility. IVF will be the best option when sperm count is low but morphology and motility are normal.  Fertility specialists would go for IVF when possible as it allows a more natural selection of the best sperm to ideally fertilize the egg. Sometimes ICSI is chosen when morphology or motility is abnormal. ICSI is very successful even when the sperm motility and morphology are severely impaired.

Guru Hospital is a well-known Infertility Center Madurai with a national and international recognition for infertility-related treatments and IVF services. Guru hospital provides the best ivf treatment in Tamil Nadu and been helping couples fulfil their dreams to become parents with expert treatments and dedicated care. The Infertility Specialists in Madurai offer you the entire range of treatments and services to assist you in your journey to having a child. These include preconception counselling and testing, IUI, IVF, ICSI, Pre-genetic Diagnosis, sexual dysfunction treatment and ICSI Treatment in India as well as gynaecologic surgeries. 

They aim to provide reliable, high quality, personalized care for patients and to treat infertility-related conditions as well as other areas of women’s care, by adopting sophisticated technologies, and thereby be a one stop solution centre for infertility.

Visit Us: infertility-center-madurai.com

Mail Us:guruinfertilitycenter@gmail.com

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