What are the steps of Egg Freezing?Click to see more details
Cycle
Your cycle Day 1 (first day of full bleed, any time during the day)
Baseline Check
This accompanies an ultrasound assessment to measure your antral follicle count (AFC) and assure there are no significant ovarian cysts. These measurement parameters signal the best time to start a treatment cycle. Once your primary fertility doctor has reviewed the results of your baseline ultrasound, we will see whether this is a good cycle to get started and begin to tailor your own fertility treatment plan.
Follicle Stimulation
We try to maximize your chances of success by generating as many mature eggs as possible in an IVF cycle. The stimulation phase involves the fertility shots and medication for 8-10 days, to induce the ovaries to produce as many mature eggs as possible.
Monitoring Visit
Monitoring visit in general involves a follicle monitoring ultrasound and a blood test to track the development of a follicle (or follicles) and monitor for ovulation. We may want you to visit the clinic more frequently towards the end of the stimulation phase. This usually involves 1-2 appointments, though more appointments may be needed.
Egg Retrieval
We recommend you arrive at our center 10 minutes before your procedure is scheduled to begin. This will allow you plenty of time to complete your paperwork and consult with the nurse and physician performing the procedure. Your physician will then use an ultrasound machine and probe to identify and retrieve eggs from your follicles. After this procedure, you will relax in our recovery room until you feel ready to head home.
Transvaginal Ultrasound
A vaginal ultrasound will be performed to see whether this is a good cycle to get started.
Fertility Shots & Medication
Your primary fertility doctor will prescribe medication specific to your body and treatment plan, it is usually in the form of injection.
Transvaginal Ultrasound
Your fertility doctor will monitor your response to the fertility shots with a follicle monitoring ultrasound.
Bloodwork
Your primary fertility doctor may request hormone level check to further track your response to the fertility shots. These hormones include Estradiol (E2), Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Progesterone (P4).
Trigger Shot
Once the ovarian follicles have achieved an adequate size, a“trigger shot” of a large dose of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is given to induce final maturation of the eggs.
The timing of this injection needs to be very precise, and an egg retrieval procedure is then scheduled for 34-36 hours following this trigger injection.
Social Egg Freezing Introduction
Social Egg Freezing (SEF) is a treatment that allows women to freeze their eggs for future usage, considering their age and life plan. Late marriage is nowadays a social trend; however, female fertility ability is greatly affected by age. The ideal age for pregnancy is at age 25 – 35, in which female’s eggs quality stay in the best condition. After age 35, ovary function will start to decline, which will reduce rapidly after age 38. Therefore, many young women would come across a dilemma of striving for career or being a mother. With technology development and breakthrough in freezing technique, the idea of saving eggs for future usage is getting more and more popular. Plenty of enterprises, both local and overseas, would offer welfare on fertility treatments, including leading companies, such as Facebook, Google and Citibank, etc.
In Dr. Wang Reproductive Fertility Center, frozen eggs will be kept in nitrogen case with -196℃, aiming to stop the metabolism of eggs and prepare to use after defrost.
Social Egg Freezing treatment is suitable for:
- Patients undergoing IVF treatment that sperm cannot be collected on time.
- Patients suffering from cancer or other diseases and will receive chemotherapy.
- Patients postponing the plan of having a baby.
SEF Treatment Procedures
Ovulation Induction
Ovulation induction is the stimulation of ovulation by medication. Patients will have to come back for review twice or three times to decide the best timing for egg retrieval. hCG injection will be applied 34-36 hours before egg retrieval.
Egg Retrieval
General anesthesia would be applied during egg retrieval. Eggs would be retrieved with the use of transvaginal ultrasound. The surgery time is considerably short. There will be no external wound and hospital stay is needed.
