The Tyler Medical Clinic

Assisted Conception - Affordable Infertility Treatments

- Egg Cryopreservation - Process -

Eggs and ovarian tissue have been found to survive well using improved cryoprotectant solutions and techniques.  These new developments offer the hope of preserving fertility for a large number of patients. 

Egg Retrieval

Using fertility drugs, the ovaries are stimulated to produce several high quality eggs for retrieval. When the follicles are ready for egg retrieval, a needle is inserted into the ovaries using ultrasound guidance to locate each follicle.  Fluid from the follicles is drawn into a test tube to retrieve the eggs.  The patient is given pain medication and the procedure lasts about 15 minutes.  The eggs are identified with a microscope and collected for freezing. 

Treatment with cryoprotectant

The eggs must be treated with a cryoprotectant before they can be frozen. A cryoprotectant such as ethylene glycol (EG) is added to a physiological saline in 0.5 M increments every 5 minutes until the desired concentration (1.5 M EG) is reached.  The sample, processed at ambient temperature, is now ready for freezing. 

Egg freezing and storage.

The temperature of the sample is reduced from 20° to -7°C (the temperature of ice nucleation) at 2°C/minute, and then held for 10 minutes.  Cooling is then resumed at a rate of -0.5°C/minute to 30°C.  The frozen eggs are then plunged into liquid nitrogen for storage.   

Egg Fertilization

When ready to have children, one or more of the eggs is thawed.  After thawing, surviving eggs are fertilized through the ICSI method. The fertilized eggs then usually develop into multi-celled embryos. Using a catheter, one or more embryos are then simply placed in the uterus, hopefully establishing a pregnancy.

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Last modified: 06/09/04