Cryopreservation: A Procedure to Preserve Fertility

Cryopreservation is also known as cryo-conservation. It is a procedure through which cells, tissues, matrix, organs, and organelles are freeze and stored. This process is used to preserve fertility by freezing eggs (for females) and sperms (for males) for years that can be used in the future.

Egg freezing is a common term for Oocyte Cryopreservation. A woman can choose to freeze her eggs if she needs to postpone her pregnancy and aspire to become pregnant using frozen healthy eggs in the future.

A man opts for sperm freezing if he is facing any medical issue or wants to preserve healthy sperm at the right age to reduce any age-related constraints of good quality sperms in the future.

You can get more information about fertility preservation from SCI IVF HOSPITAL – Best Infertility Clinic in Delhi NCR.

Why there is a Need for Fertility Preservation?

There are various medical and social reasons that lead one to choose fertility preservation. Also, in ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology), it can be an intermediately step to freeze donor egg or sperm.

1. If a man or woman is diagnosed with cancer and likely to undergo chemotherapy, can opt to freeze sperms/eggs just before the therapy. The reason behind freezing the sperms/eggs is, chemotherapy involves lots of radiation that can affect your reproductive abilities. In the future, whenever the patient desires to conceive, these freeze sperms/ eggs are thawed and used in ART.
2. If a woman has to go through a surgery where ovaries (eggs producing organ) are needed to remove due to some medical issue, she can preserve eggs prior to such surgery. Similarly, if a man has to go through vasectomy due to some medical condition can opt to freeze his sperms. These sperms/eggs can be freeze and used later when needed to conceive.
3. If a woman or man is willing to donate eggs or sperms, respectively to a couple facing infertility issue.
4. If a woman is not willing to get pregnant at this point in time due to some lifestyle reasons such as carrier goals, she can get her eggs to preserve for the future. Age is a big factor in infertility. At the age of 35 or above, the egg-producing capability of women depletes continuously. By getting her healthy eggs freeze at the right time of age helps them to conceive whenever they are ready to become mothers.

Process of Egg freezing

After checking the health of eggs, they are freeze at a temperature of around -400 F. It is stored in a special solution. When the woman desires to conceive, the eggs are thawed in an incubator and used in IVF or IUI process. SCI IVF HOSPITAL assures the best IVF treatment in Delhi. 

Process of Sperm freezing

After semen analysis and sperm quality, sperms are freeze at a temperature of around -198 F. When the man willing to become a father, these sperms are thawed and injected into the eggs in an IVF process.

Disadvantages of Fertility Preservation

The following are some disadvantages of the process.

1. Preservation of eggs/sperms can be costly as you need to pay for the whole duration to keep them preserved in the labs.
2. This process may not be effective. Though the existence rate of egg or sperm by this process is around 90-95%, which is very high. But still, in some cases, it may fail to achieve its purpose.
3. This process does not guarantee a pregnancy.