Egg Freezing or Oocyte cryopreservation is a process wherein a woman's eggs are removed, frozen and stored for later use. The process is like the IVF Treatment, but just short of fertilisation and embryo transfer. As in IVF Treatment, women undergo ovarian stimulation and follicular monitoring. Once the follicles are ready, oocyte retrieval is planned as in routine IVF cycle. These oocytes are then frozen using Vitrification technique. The oocytes can be stored for months or years and can be used anytime in future. Whenever the women want to plan pregnancy, the oocytes are thawed and fertilised with partners' sperms by Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) to form embryos. The embryos are then transferred to the uterus in order to achieve pregnancy.
Egg Freezing or Oocyte cryopreservation allows the women to delay her pregnancy and preserve her fertility worrying about the biological clock. All women are born with a fixed ovarian reserve which is decided at the time of birth. The reserve continues to deplete with age. Egg freezing depends on the number of eggs present in the women’s ovaries. The lesser the age, more is the reserve and more is the number and better quality oocytes available for freezing.
