Egg Freezing
Egg Freezing Can Extend the Time for Achieving Your Parenthood Dreams
There are several reasons why egg freezing might be considered:
- Finding a suitable partner may not have happened, and time for fertility is running out.
- Sometimes life circumstances are not conducive to having a child just yet.
- A sudden serious illness can postpone the dream of having a child, or the treatment itself may affect fertility.
Since a woman’s fertility is largely dependent on age, it is advisable to consider proactive egg freezing before the age of 36.
The development of a woman’s egg cells begins during fetal development, and as a result, the DNA in these egg cells ages at the same rate as the woman herself. As we get older, our cells, including egg cells, accumulate more DNA damage. For egg cells, this means that with age fewer and fewer of them are capable of resulting in a successful pregnancy. The average age of menopause in Western women is around 51 years, but fertile eggs run out several years, even up to nearly 10 years, before that.
Studies suggest that around 20 eggs frozen before the age of 36 are needed to have a good chance of achieving one successful pregnancy later.
How Is Egg Freezing Done?
Egg freezing treatment requires the same medications and techniques as in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ovaries are stimulated with injectable medication for 10-14 days to mature approximately 15 eggs within one menstrual cycle. When the eggs are mature, they are retrieved form the ovaries in a day surgery procedure called egg collection or retrieval and frozen using the vitrification method on the same day.
Recovery from the procedure is usually quick, and most patients require only one day off from work.
Later, the frozen eggs can be thawed, fertilized, and cultured into embryos, which can then be transferred into the uterus.
Finnish law does not set a time limit for storing frozen gametes (sperm and eggs), but our clinic has an upper age limit of 46 years for their use- the same other treatments as well.
What Does Egg Freezing Cost?
Since it is recommended to freeze a minimum of about 20 eggs, most individuals need to undergo two cycles of treatment, sometimes even three.
One freezing cycle, including medication, costs approximately 3000€. The exact cost may vary depending on individual circumstances.
Have Children Been Born from Frozen Eggs?
Globally, thousands of children have been born from frozen eggs, and at Dextra Fertility Clinic we have also done several successful embryo transfers from frozen eggs.
Embryo Freezing
Embryo freezing typically comes into play when one partner in a couple has a severe illness or when a couple together wants to postpone having children.
In this scenario, in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is performed using the couple’s own eggs and sperm, and the resulting embryos are frozen for future use. Since embryo freezing occurs at a more advanced stage of the fertilization process compared to egg freezing, it is a more secure way to preserve the possibility of successful pregnancies in the future.
Dextra Fertility Clinic is ready to initiate IVF treatment with embryo freezing with very short notice, for example, before starting cancer treatments.