Nowadays more and more women push their pregnancy into their late 30s or even 40s and unfortunately, at that age they usually hit the biological clock that can make it harder to have children. However, with the help of the latest technology, women are able to stop the clock at least for a while. Claim Your 20 Free Pregnancy Tests – Click Here
Long time ago, the difficulty with the process of egg freezing was caused by the fact that the egg tended to develop ice crystals around it during the process of freezing. But now the eggs are dehydrated and rehydrated during the thawing.
This will minimize and eliminate the formation of ice crystals during the freezing/thawing phase. Another breakthrough when it comes to the freezing of eggs is the Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (or the ICSI). With ICSI, the embryologist will inject the egg with a single sperm that will fertilize it.
How does it work?
The extraction of eggs is the first step in egg freezing. The women receive drugs to increase the production of eggs. After that, the eggs are extracted from the ovary using needles guided by ultrasound. The eggs are placed on a flat dish to be identified and with the help of a microscope. After that, they are withdrawn and prepared for freezing.
Preparation for freezing
As mentioned before, eggs tend to develop ice crystals inside them, which will end up damaging the eggs. For this reason, scientists will take the water out of the eggs and will bathe them in a solution that will keep the eggs unfrozen. However, this process may vary depending on the laboratory. Some go for a slow freezing technique, and other laboratories prefer a process called verification, which is a newer flash-freezing process that requires a higher concentration of cryoprotectants to be added. Nevertheless, the result of verification will be a solid glass-like cell free of ice crystals and has a higher success rate compared to the slow-cooling process.
Storage of frozen eggs
The frozen eggs will then be stored in tubes inside a storage tank filled with liquid nitrogen.
Thawing and fertilization
When it is time to unfreeze the eggs and the woman wants to try to get pregnant, all the eggs are individually thawed and then injected with a needle that contains only one sperm, which will enable the egg to grow into an embryo.
Implantation of the egg
The embryo will then be implanted inside the uterus with the help of a catheter.
The bottom line
In conclusion, this process will give women the amazing chance to postpone their pregnancy until they are ready to start or expand their families. Even some post-menopausal women were able to get pregnant and they could deliver babies by using either their frozen eggs or eggs from younger women.
