Egg freezing, the name of which we have heard frequently in recent years, is an option for women who postpone having a baby due to career planning or other reasons or who have to postpone becoming a mother due to health reasons. Egg freezing can be applied at any age if there is egg production in the ovaries of the woman. Today, rapidly developing laboratory conditions and technologies enable successful egg freezing. Gynecology and Obstetrics Specialist Prof. Dr. Recai Pabuçcu told all the curious about egg freezing.
Gynecology and Obstetrics Specialist Prof. Dr. Recai Pabuçcu, “Women who make career planning and postpone becoming a mother due to various health problems can freeze their eggs and use these eggs in the future, if their reserves are at a critical point. With the regulation published in 2014, egg freezing has also become a source of hope for individuals at risk of early menopause or who have not yet completed their family. she said.
What is the egg freezing process?
Egg freezing is the process of freezing the egg (oocyte) obtained from the woman’s ovary for future use. In female ovaries, there are small vesicles called follicles that mainly constitute the reserve. These sacs contain eggs. This method, in which the eggs collected after certain procedures are frozen in the laboratory environment, allows the eggs to be stored and used in the future. The egg retrieval process for egg freezing is the same as for in vitro fertilization. When the egg cell is frozen, it bears the characteristics of the woman’s current age. Women who choose this method preserve their chance of becoming a mother at any age. For example, if eggs that are frozen at the age of 35 are to be thawed and used after 5 years, the characteristics of the embryo to be obtained are evaluated according to the age of 35, which provides a significant advantage.
How is it done?
The procedure must be done in experienced IVF centers. With the onset of menstruation in women, hormone therapy is applied for about 10-15 days. Eggs obtained as a result of this hormone therapy are frozen under laboratory conditions by vitrification technique. The vitrification technique is the most advanced freezing technique and causes less damage during freezing and thawing than other techniques. When pregnancy is desired, the eggs of the patient who applied to the doctor are thawed, fertilization is performed with the sperm of his wife, the embryos obtained are transferred and pregnancy is expected.
Who can have this procedure done?
Egg freezing was used to preserve reproductive ability in patients who were going to undergo ovarian surgery due to cancer and similar health problems or were planned for treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy that would affect the ovaries. However, according to the revised regulation, egg collection has also started to be applied to single women who have decreased ovarian capacity due to advanced age or various reasons. In this way, in women who do not have a partner yet and whose ovarian capacity will decrease and the chance of pregnancy will decrease in the future, egg cells are kept and their fertility can be preserved by showing low reserve.
Who can’t?
In cases with menopause or severely reduced ovarian capacity, healthy eggs cannot be obtained and egg freezing is not possible.
Frozen eggs were thawed at Centrum Clinic IVF Center and successful pregnancy was achieved after years…
In a case whose eggs were frozen at the age of 43 for various reasons, exactly 5 years later, at the age of 47, these eggs were thawed and fertilized with her husband’s sperm. Obtained embryos were transferred and pregnancy news came.
Especially in recent years, very satisfactory results have been obtained with egg cell and embryo freezing. Success with frozen cells is approximately comparable to success with freshly used cells. With the modern medical methods used today, 95 percent of the frozen embryos can be thawed in a healthy way. Although the chance of pregnancy in these embryos varies with age, it can reach up to 40-50% on average. Healthy pregnancies can be obtained even years after freezing. No adverse effects are observed in babies in pregnancies obtained with frozen cells. In addition, studies show that there is no risk in terms of anomalies in babies born by freezing method.
Women at risk should get information about the egg freezing process without wasting time.
Source: (BHA) – Beyaz News Agency
