Egg Freezing in India

biological-clock

More women are delaying motherhood but they still face the constraint of their biological clocks. If the time is not right for you to start a family, technology offers an opportunity to take control of your reproductive health and postpone pregnancy until a later date. Freezing your eggs is an act of empowerment, allowing you to preserve your reproductive ability.

Egg freezing can be beneficial for a number of reasons including:

1. Facilitation and reduction in the cost of oocyte donation.
2. Provide a mechanism to “maintain” the reproductive potential of women undergoing deleterious therapies (e.g., chemotherapy).
3. The provision of egg cryostorage for women wishing to delay their reproductive choices.
4. Women with a family history of early menopause. Some forms of early menopause (premature ovarian failure) are genetically-linked. Egg freezing offers a chance to preserve eggs before they are all depleted.
5. Legal advantages in regards to custodial issues.

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What Is Egg Freezing?

Egg freezing, technically called oocyte cryopreservation, involves stimulating, extracting, freezing, and storing a woman’s eggs (oocytes). The eggs can be thawed months, or even years, later and fertilized, creating embryos. These embryos then can be transferred to the uterus in an attempt to achieve a successful pregnancy.

Cryopreservation is not new. Since the 1950’s, human sperm has been frozen and stored, and since the 1980’s, human embryos have been cryopreserved. Both sperm and embryo freezing are routine procedures performed successfully in most fertility centers around the world.

Egg freezing, however, is not yet routine. Issues in freezing and thawing of human eggs center on the high water content of the egg itself. Using conventional freezing methods, the egg is susceptible to both damage and destruction as ice crystals within the egg can cause it to fracture upon thawing. There are also safety issues concerning chromosomal abnormalities within the thawed egg.

New cryopreservation technology, called “vitrification,” has revolutionized our ability to thaw successfully frozen eggs. In vitrification, rapid cooling rates spare the egg from forming ice crystals within, and as a result, they are less likely to fracture upon thawing. Having the tools to predictably and safely thaw eggs, the stumbling blocks are removed.

Am I A Candidate For Egg Freezing?

If you are considering egg freezing, we urge you to contact us, we will consult our IVF specialist and send you a list of a few medical tests that she will need for her opinion

Egg freezing depends upon egg production, which is based on the number of eggs that are still in your ovaries and how they will respond to the medications required for the ovaries to make eggs.

The three most important factors in determining your chances for potential success with egg freezing are:

• Your age;
• Your baseline (Cycle Day 3) level of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Estradiol (E2) as determined by a blood test
• Your “resting” ovarian follicle count as determined by pelvic ultrasound

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The Process of Freezing Your Eggs

To freeze eggs, fertility doctor stimulate a woman’s ovaries to produce multiple eggs (more than the regular one egg per cycle), with fertility drugs. Eggs are retrieved in the same manner as is performed for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Fertility medications are administered to stimulate the development of multiple eggs within the ovaries. Fertility doctors then harvest these eggs from the ovaries and freeze them for later use.

A woman’s egg quality peaks between 16 to 28 years old during her reproductive prime. Eggs can still be acceptable from age 29 to 38 (the mid-reproductive years), but their quality diminishes greatly from age 39 to 44.

Will Egg Freezing Enable Me to Have a Baby?

empowering women

Many factors go into making a successful pregnancy. There are no absolute guarantees. Your chances of ultimately having a baby following egg freezing are greater when the oocytes are both younger and greater in number.

Unfortunately, some women will produce only a few eggs. Follicle number does not equal mature egg number, and only mature eggs are frozen. We anticipate that up to 80% of the cryopreserved eggs will survive the thawing process. Approximately 80% of these successfully thawed eggs will allow themselves to be fertilized. A select number of the fertilized egg will develop into an embryo that will create a pregnancy. However, not every pregnancy will end with a healthy baby as the miscarriage rate is approximately 15%.

Cost of Egg Freezing in India

The cost of oocyte cryopreservation is similar to the cost of an IVF cycle. An annual fee is charged for storage of the cryopreserved oocytes after the first year, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is required to fertilize the thawed oocytes.

Timeline and Stay in India

The Egg Freezing process will take 15 – 18 days in India. A hotel or a decent guest house near the clinic can be arranged for you. The cost of the accommodation can range from USD 30 – 200 per night.

How do I begin the Egg Freezing process?

You can contact us by filling out a form or emailing us. We will get the opinion of the IVF specialist and send you a few medical tests list that she will need to opine on your case. Once these medical tests are reviewed by her, we can plan for your ICSI cycle the next month or as per your schedule.