Egg / Sperm Freezing
The rapid expansion in the use of assisted conception for the management of infertility has resulted in a parallel increase in the freezing of sperm, embryos and more recently, eggs. Freezing of human sperm is now done routinely, and has good survival rates are achieved after thawing. It has proved to be very successful in assisted conception. Human embryos have also been successfully frozen since 1983 and as a result patients have the option to freeze any excess good quality embryos for future use.
Cryopreservation refers to the frozen storage of embryos, eggs, ovarian tissue, sperm, and testicular tissue. Cryopreservation can enable conception in the future when fertility may have significantly diminished or expired. For example, in the case of impending chemotherapy with the potential to destroy fertility, embryos can be created and cryopreserved for use when the medical crisis is over and the couple feel ready to consider starting a family. In the case of a single woman or man due to undergo medical treatment with the potential to destroy fertility, eggs/ovarian tissue/sperm/testicular tissue can be cryopreserved to try for a pregnancy with a future partner. Similarly in a healthy couple, when a number of embryos are created from an IVF treatment cycle, and only two embryos are transferred, the remainder of the embryos can be cryopreserved for use at a later date, thereby reducing the need for a woman to undergo another complete treatment cycle. We also use frozen eggs and sperm for egg and sperm donation.
At the CRGH, we freeze eggs and embryos using vitrification which is a highly successful technique Vitrification see our Success rates.
More recently, CRGH has been using a laser to create a hole in the zona of the blastocysts upon warming. This is to ensure that the cells can successfully hatch out of the zona pellucida (the shell of the embryo) and implant to form a pregnancy.
