Fertility Preservation: Elective Egg Freezing

You never know where life is going to take you, or perhaps the road you’re currently traveling doesn’t include the immediate desire to start a family, at least not quite yet.  Whatever the reason, more and more women are choosing to stop the biological clock and are opting for elective fertility preservation – a process that freezes eggs in order to have children later in life.

As women age, the quantity and quality of eggs decline each year – dramatically declining after the age of 35 and leaving only a 5% chance of conceiving by the age of 40.  With egg freezing, a woman can serve as her own egg donor when she is ready to conceive later in life. 

Reasons for Fertility Preservation:

• Medical reasons, including cancer treatment *According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in the Journal of Oncology Practice, “Oncologists should address the possibility of infertility with patients treated during their reproductive years.  Fertility preservation is often possible, but to serve the full range of options, fertility preservation approaches should be considered as early as possible during (cancer) treatment planning.”
• The desire to start a family later in life
• Personal reasons that delay child bearing
• To avoid freezing surplus embryos after an IVF cycle

At IVF FLORIDA, fertility preservation has never been easier with our Egg Freezing Fertility Preservation package.  The first step of the process starts with a physician consultation that includes an in-depth discussion of the patient’s needs and expectations, as well as a detailed description of the procedure.  Once the patient decides to move forward, blood tests and a pelvic ultrasound are performed to assess the number of eggs in the ovaries.  The next step is ovarian stimulation - a two-week process that involves fertility hormone injections (gonadotropins) in order to produce more mature eggs than a typical cycle.  The physician will then determine the exact time to retrieve the eggs which soon after will be frozen and stored.  When a woman decides to attempt a pregnancy, the eggs are thawed, fertilized, and transferred into the uterus. 

For more information on elective fertility preservation at IVF FLORIDA, please give us a call today! 

Resources: http://jop.ascopubs.org/content/2/3/143.full, http://uscfertility.org/egg-freezing/, http://ivf.org/fertility-preservation/elective-fertility-preservation/