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Egg Freezing Specialist

Elite IVF -  - Infertility and Reproductive Medicine

Elite IVF

Infertility and Reproductive Medicine & Minimally Invasive Robotic Gynecology located throughout Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas

Freezing your eggs at a young age allows you to preserve their fertility and stop the biological clock for your pregnancy potential. At Elite IVF, Botros Rizk, MD, MA FACOG, FACS, HCLD, FRCOG, FRCS, and his team can walk you through the process of freezing your eggs and using in vitro fertilization to fertilize them for pregnancy. You can visit an Elite IVF location in The Woodlands, Odessa, Houston and Fulshear, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, or Fairhope, Alabama. For more information about the egg freezing process, call Elite IVF or book an appointment online today.

Egg Freezing Q&A

What is egg freezing? 

Egg freezing, also called mature oocyte cryopreservation, is a way to preserve your fertility and get pregnant later in life. If you choose to freeze your eggs, the team at Elite IVF harvests viable unfertilized eggs from your ovaries and stores them until you decide to use them for pregnancy. 

Later, when you choose to use your eggs, the Elite IVF team thaws your frozen eggs. In a lab setting, they combine them with sperm from your partner or a donor. The team then implants the fertilized egg in your uterus in a process called in vitro fertilization.

Who should consider egg freezing?

There are many reasons why you might want to consider freezing your eggs for a later pregnancy. The Elite IVF team can help you decide if you should freeze your eggs based on your circumstances. A few common reasons why you might choose to freeze your eggs are:

  • You want to use your younger eggs at an older age
  • A health condition might affect your fertility
  • Treatment for a health condition might affect your fertility
  • You want to undergo in vitro fertilization

It’s important to note that, when you eventually use your eggs, the team at Elite IVF can implant the embryo (sperm and egg together) into your uterus or someone else’s uterus who will carry out the pregnancy for you.

What is the process of egg freezing?

Before you freeze your eggs, the team at Elite IVF may ask that you take infectious disease screening blood tests and an ovarian reserve test to find out more about your reproductive health. 

Once testing is complete, you must take synthetic hormones to stimulate your ovaries. Injectable hormonal medications cause your ovaries to release more than one egg per month. More specifically, they cause your ovaries to develop follicles or sacs that help your eggs mature. The team performs tests throughout this process to monitor your response to the medications.

During the egg removal procedure, the team sedates you before extracting eggs from the follicles using a suction device and needle. You can complete this process more than once, with each cycle yielding up to 15 healthy eggs to freeze.

When you decide to fertilize and implant your eggs, you have a 30-60% chance of implantation. Your chances of successful implantation get lower as you age.

How long can I keep my eggs frozen?

You can keep your eggs frozen for as long as you need them to be. In some cases, women freeze their eggs for a decade or longer before using them. Research shows that freezing your eggs for years does not affect their quality or fertilization potential.

For answers to all of your questions about egg freezing, call Elite IVF or schedule an appointment online today.