What is the Egg Freezing Process?
The patient will take an ovulation-inducing medication for 10 to 12 days in order to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs for retrieval.
During this time, we monitor blood levels as well as perform ultrasound monitoring to ensure the appropriate response to the medication is occurring. The mature eggs are then retrieved, with the woman or transgender man under mild anesthesia. This is an outpatient procedure, which usually lasts 30 minutes.
Eggs are then flash-frozen through a process known as vitrification. The eggs are bathed in a cryoprotectant and rapidly cooled to -320 degrees Fahrenheit in liquid nitrogen. This process suspends biological activity until the eggs are thawed.
When the individual is ready to begin the next part of fertility treatment, the frozen egg(s) are thawed by an embryologist and, typically, fertilized through an IVF technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This process optimizes the chances of fertilization as it injects a single sperm directly into the cytoplasm of the egg where fertilization occurs.
The fertilized egg, or embryo, is then transferred into the patient’s uterus.