Freezing eggs
More women want to freeze their eggs for later use, to ensure they have quality eggs from a younger age. If you have trouble getting pregnant at a later date, the frozen eggs can be used in a test tube treatment.
What is egg freezing?
Egg freezing, also known as social freezing, involves extracting mature eggs from the woman's ovaries through an egg retrieval procedure and then freezing the eggs in tanks of liquid nitrogen. This stops the "egg clock" and puts the quality of the eggs on hold. If you later have trouble getting pregnant on your own, you will have eggs of the same quality as when they were frozen, which can be used throughout your pregnancy. assisted fertilization.
Who can freeze eggs?
In principle, all women can freeze their eggs, without a medical reason. But we assume that The Biotechnology Act recommendation that you should be between 25 and 35 years old. The reason for this is that you are normally at your most fertile age and have good quality eggs.
We do, however, make assessments in both directions of the age scale. You can be older than 35 years and still have eggs of good enough quality for freezing. The youngest age is set at 25 years, because in principle there should be no reason for a healthy woman to freeze eggs earlier. However, there may be a history of illness that affects egg production, and then the matter becomes different. Age is therefore always a matter of assessment.
Why freeze eggs?
If you want to have children but are not quite ready to get pregnant right now, freezing your eggs for later use may be an option. This applies to both women who are single or in a relationship who want to plan for the future.
Women's fertility gradually decreases from the age of 32, and unfortunately the process accelerates from the age of 37. The probability of successfully getting pregnant with eggs from a younger age is therefore higher than when you try to get pregnant when you are older – both on your own and with assisted reproduction. By freezing eggs, you can therefore increase the likelihood that you will have good quality eggs at a later date when you want to get pregnant.
How the process works
To be able to freeze eggs, we always have to start with a fertility check, to check the status of your egg reserve and egg quality. Based on this, one of our experienced fertility experts will advise and guide you on how many eggs you should freeze.
There are 5 more steps before the eggs are frozen:
1. Stimulation of the ovaries
You are stimulated with hormone injections to develop more eggs than you normally do in a cycle. You inject the injections yourself just under the skin on your stomach, every day for 2 weeks. This encourages your ovaries to create more follicles, or egg sacs as they are also called, so that there are more mature eggs to be retrieved.
2. Ultrasound to check the response
During the stimulation period, you will usually have 1-2 ultrasound sessions with us. We will find out how many follicles have developed and how big they have become. After a second ultrasound, we will see when the eggs will be ready for retrieval. When you go home, you will be given an ovulation injection.
3. Inserting the ovulation injection
When the follicles are the right size, you will administer an ovulation induction injection to mature the eggs so they are ready for retrieval. Usually, you will administer the injection 36 hours before the egg retrieval, but we will let you know when to administer your injection.
4. Retrieve eggs (OPU)
Approximately 36 hours after the ovulation injection, you will return to the clinic. It is then time to retrieve the mature eggs.
You will be given both sedatives and painkillers beforehand, so that the egg retrieval will be a comfortable experience for you. During the egg retrieval itself, you will be given local anesthesia. The entire session usually does not last more than 10–15 minutes..
5. Freeze your eggs
After retrieval, all mature eggs are flash-frozen and placed in a tank of liquid nitrogen. This is called vitrification and is a recognized method that provides a very good survival rate when the eggs are thawed again.
If more egg retrievals are needed, the process is restarted with hormonal stimulation.
Would you like to know more about the whole process of freezing eggs and everything it entails? We have created a own guide which answers the most frequently asked questions – it is completely free to download!
How much does it cost to freeze eggs?
How much the total price will be for you depends on how many egg retrievals are required to achieve the number of eggs we agree on. The number of eggs depends on:
- How many eggs do we recommend freezing to have a good chance of getting pregnant later?
- how many eggs you want to freeze
What is certain is that anyone who wants to freeze eggs must first undergo a fertility test. So there is a cost that must be taken into account, as well as the cost of medication for hormone stimulation.
One year after freezing eggs, there will be an annual cost for storing the eggs in the freezer.
The first step is a fertility check - book an appointment today
The first step in the process is always a fertility check to check how things are going. You can of course take this without any further commitment. Our experienced fertility experts will give you good guidance and advice if there is a reason why you should freeze your eggs.
You can easily find a time that suits you via our online booking.
