Egg Freezing at Texas Fertility Center: Slow the Biological Clock

When a female is born, she has between 5 million and 7 million eggs — the supply she will have for the rest of her lifetime. As women age, their egg supply dwindles, and after age 35, the quantity, quality and viability of the eggs decreases even more rapidly. Today, many women are choosing to postpone childbirth because of educational pursuits, job obligations or health reasons. Egg freezing provides women with an option to potentially preserve their ability to conceive for a later date. Our South Austin fertility specialists have extensive experience in fertility preservation for women.

Why choose egg freezing?

A woman may want to explore egg freezing for several reasons.

• The presence of an illness that requires surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment that could harm her eggs
• A desire to preserve her healthy eggs at a young age (20s or 30s), so she has the opportunity to start a family at a future date
• The need – whether for personal or religious reasons – to be able to freeze her genetic material prior to fertilization

Women should know a few things about egg freezing. For one, experts recommend that women freeze their eggs as early as possible – preferably before age 38. No sperm are needed from a partner or a donor at the time a woman chooses to freeze her eggs, because the eggs are frozen unfertilized. The eggs will be fertilized when they are thawed, at the time the woman chooses, which allows her to make the decision of who her sperm donor will be at a later date.

Egg freezing process

Egg freezing is a multi-step fertility preservation process.

• Ovulation induction – the woman receives hormone medication to stimulate her ovaries to produce eggs
• Egg retrieval – an outpatient procedure that takes approximately 20 minutes, performed with the patient under sedation, in which the physician removes the eggs from the ovaries
• Egg freezing –trained embryologists inspect the harvested eggs and select the viable ones to be frozen using vitrification

Our Ovation IVF laboratory uses the process of vitrification for egg freezing. This “flash freezing” method prevents ice crystals, which can destroy the egg’s cellular structure, from forming.

When the woman is ready to start a family, her eggs will be thawed and fertilized, and any resulting embryos can be transferred to her uterus during the IVF process.

When choosing egg freezing, make the right choice

When choosing egg freezing, it’s important to choose a leading fertility center with a team of experienced physicians, embryologists and scientists. We are proud of our egg freezing success rates and are happy to discuss the process with you. Contact us to get started.