Ensure Future Pregnancy By Freezing Eggs At Early Age
Now preserving fertility and seeking motherhood at later age is possible through Oocyte Cryopreservation
As career oriented women of modern age spend long span of their lives in building a successful career; complications while conceiving and getting pregnant have become a common problem for her. At the age she plans to start a family (30-35+ years), it gets too late as per her biological conditions. She has to face severe issues in having successful and healthy pregnancy. Women who delay childbearing due to personal reasons, or women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer now have a solution to store their eggs before the treatment of chemotherapy begins.
Especially for these women, Oocyte Cryopreservation (freezing of eggs) provides an opportunity of preserving their fertility at early age.
For younger women who know in advance that they may want to extend their fertility potential, egg freezing also called fertility preservation provides the ability to preserve a woman's own genetic material until such time as she is ready to pursue parenthood.
WORKING OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Women have on an average about 600,000 eggs at birth, and this supply diminishes at a rate of about 1,000 per month, right from the day she is born. This decline is part of the natural aging process, and is commonly referred to as a woman's biological clock. The loss of oocytes from the ovaries is relentless and continues even in the absence of menstrual cycles, and even when women are pregnant, nursing or taking oral contraceptives. The rate at which eggs are lost is also thought to accelerate during the late 30's and early 40's so that women generally lose the natural ability to have children around their mid 40's. Importantly, egg quality also diminishes with time, with miscarriages and chromosome defects becoming more common with later age at pregnancy."
STEPS OF OOCYTE FREEZING PROCESS
The initial step of egg freezing process is to generate multiple eggs for retrieval. The patient is prescribed fertility medications to stimulate follicle growth and produce multiple eggs. This phase of treatment lasts approximately 10 days.
Then Ultrasound monitoring and lab testing is done to assess follicle growth and the number of eggs they are producing. When eggs are determined to be mature and ready for retrieval, the fertility medication is stopped. Then one injection of is given to prepare eggs for ovulation which brings on the final phase of egg maturation, allowing the eggs to separate from the surrounding granulosa cells.
Egg retrieval procedure is a painless and relatively brief procedure in which eggs are gently retrieved from the ovarian follicles by ultrasound guidance. Patient is kept under sedation and in the care of an anaesthesiologist throughout the procedure. The retrieval procedure takes only 10 minutes; patients are able to resume normal activity shortly after the sedation has worn off.
These retrieved eggs are preserved through a rapid freezing process called Vitrification. Eggs remain frozen until they are needed. The eggs may be kept frozen indefinitely so it is critically important that patients maintain annual contact with the clinic.
BENEFITS
Egg freezing also benefits women with diseases that could interfere with their fertility. This medical advancement of egg freezing has also enabled post-menopausal women to discover motherhood at later age. Women with a family history of early menopause are much taking interest in fertility preservation. As with egg freezing, they will have a frozen store of eggs, in the likelihood that their eggs are depleted at an early age.
Dr. Hrishikesh Pai Dr. Nandita Palshetkar
Gynaecologist & Infertility Experts
Fortis Bloom IVF Centre at Fortis LaFemme Hospital, Delhi and Fortis Memorial Research Institute,
As career oriented women of modern age spend long span of their lives in building a successful career; complications while conceiving and getting pregnant have become a common problem for her. At the age she plans to start a family (30-35+ years), it gets too late as per her biological conditions. She has to face severe issues in having successful and healthy pregnancy. Women who delay childbearing due to personal reasons, or women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer now have a solution to store their eggs before the treatment of chemotherapy begins.
Especially for these women, Oocyte Cryopreservation (freezing of eggs) provides an opportunity of preserving their fertility at early age.
For younger women who know in advance that they may want to extend their fertility potential, egg freezing also called fertility preservation provides the ability to preserve a woman's own genetic material until such time as she is ready to pursue parenthood.
WORKING OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Women have on an average about 600,000 eggs at birth, and this supply diminishes at a rate of about 1,000 per month, right from the day she is born. This decline is part of the natural aging process, and is commonly referred to as a woman's biological clock. The loss of oocytes from the ovaries is relentless and continues even in the absence of menstrual cycles, and even when women are pregnant, nursing or taking oral contraceptives. The rate at which eggs are lost is also thought to accelerate during the late 30's and early 40's so that women generally lose the natural ability to have children around their mid 40's. Importantly, egg quality also diminishes with time, with miscarriages and chromosome defects becoming more common with later age at pregnancy."
STEPS OF OOCYTE FREEZING PROCESS
The initial step of egg freezing process is to generate multiple eggs for retrieval. The patient is prescribed fertility medications to stimulate follicle growth and produce multiple eggs. This phase of treatment lasts approximately 10 days.
Then Ultrasound monitoring and lab testing is done to assess follicle growth and the number of eggs they are producing. When eggs are determined to be mature and ready for retrieval, the fertility medication is stopped. Then one injection of is given to prepare eggs for ovulation which brings on the final phase of egg maturation, allowing the eggs to separate from the surrounding granulosa cells.
Egg retrieval procedure is a painless and relatively brief procedure in which eggs are gently retrieved from the ovarian follicles by ultrasound guidance. Patient is kept under sedation and in the care of an anaesthesiologist throughout the procedure. The retrieval procedure takes only 10 minutes; patients are able to resume normal activity shortly after the sedation has worn off.
These retrieved eggs are preserved through a rapid freezing process called Vitrification. Eggs remain frozen until they are needed. The eggs may be kept frozen indefinitely so it is critically important that patients maintain annual contact with the clinic.
BENEFITS
Egg freezing also benefits women with diseases that could interfere with their fertility. This medical advancement of egg freezing has also enabled post-menopausal women to discover motherhood at later age. Women with a family history of early menopause are much taking interest in fertility preservation. As with egg freezing, they will have a frozen store of eggs, in the likelihood that their eggs are depleted at an early age.
Dr. Hrishikesh Pai Dr. Nandita Palshetkar
Gynaecologist & Infertility Experts
Fortis Bloom IVF Centre at Fortis LaFemme Hospital, Delhi and Fortis Memorial Research Institute,
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