FAQS ABOUT EGG FREEZING OR OOCYTE CRYOPRESERVATION
The woman needs to undergo comprehensive tests for infections before she is deemed fit for oocyte cryopreservation. The whole cycle takes about four-six weeks from start to finish. There are four stages for egg freezing: The ovaries are stimulated at this stage to produce multiple eggs with the help of prescribed drugs (a process known as superovulation).
A needle is inserted through the vagina to extract mature eggs with the help of an ultrasound. The whole process takes place under general anaesthesia.
Vitrification, a flashfreezing technique, is used to cool the egg, so that the egg is frozen before water crystals can form. This preserves the eggs in a glasslike state. This is a relatively new technique that ensures better survival rates for preserved eggs.
After vitrification, the eggs are stored in tubes in a liquid nitrogen storage tank which keeps the eggs frozen at -196°C. It is better to store as many mature eggs as possible since as the success rate increases. The number of eggs that can be stored depends upon the number of eggs that have matured. It is important that doctors ensure that the ovaries are not hyper stimulated. Egg freezing can cost anything between Rs 20,00080,000. Babies that are born using the process of vitrification don’t have any birth defects that would not have occurred from a normal birth, going by statistics. There is plenty of data proving normal term pregnancies for babies who have been born from vitrified oocytes.