Egg freezing, also called oocyte cryopreservation, is a process that is carried out by harvesting egg cells and freezing and storing them under controlled conditions in order to preserve fertility for women.1
Egg freezing is not an optional practice in our country. The application requirements for egg freezing, which in the past years could only be preferred by women diagnosed with cancer, have been expanded now. Now, this procedure is also performed for women whose egg reserve is decreasing and their ovaries need to be surgically removed for different reasons. Egg freezing can be done to single or married women.
The main purpose of egg freezing is to preserve female fertility. As they age, women's egg reserves and the quality of eggs decrease, which results in significant decreases in the rate of conception. While advancing age is one of the most important risk factors for female fertility, young women also have a variety of health issues that affect their fertility.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments performed within cancer treatments can cause permanent damage to women's ovaries. For women who have cancer at a young age, egg freezing offers an important opportunity if they want to become mothers in the coming years. In Turkey, egg freezing, which was applied only to women who will receive cancer treatment in the past years, is now also applied to women who can confirm with three different specialist reports that her egg reserves are decreasing.
Before egg freezing, drug treatment is first applied for 10 to 14 days in order to obtain the maximum number of egg cells from the candidates who meet the necessary conditions. After stimulating the ovaries with drug therapy, the egg harvesting process is performed under anesthesia. The collected eggs are frozen by vitrification or slow freezing, preserving their viability to the maximum extent. Frozen eggs are stored at -196°C in special tanks inside liquid nitrogen, together with records.
Yes, in fact, the main purpose of the application is to protect the fertility of women. In order for frozen eggs to be used in IVF treatment, eggs must first be thawed in a controlled environment. The next stage is the mechanical insertion of the quality sperm harvested from the man into the egg via ICSI method. Subsequently, the embryo formation is expected, in other words, the stages of normal IVF treatment come into play. Women who have frozen eggs, at any appropriate time, can have a baby with IVF treatment, but this cannot be guaranteed.2
It is also important to know that even with freshly harvested unfrozen eggs, IVF treatment can not achieve 100% success. The formation of pregnancy is an extremely complicated process. It is important to perform egg freezing in the earliest possible age in order to increase the success rate of IVF.
1 https://www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/fertility-preservation/egg-freezing/
2 https://www.uclahealth.org/medical-services/obgyn/fertility/egg-freezing
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