Social Freezing
Social freezing is preventive freezing of unfertilized eggs (oocytes) due to health grounds or another reason and it represents an important contribution to the maintenance of female fertility. This option gives women who cannot or do not want yet to meet their desire for a child to have a better chance for later pregnancy.
Oocyte cryopreservation is a revolutionary method allowing eggs to be kept for a long time without adversely affecting their quality. Eggs are frozen by the vitrification process, with rapid freezing and subsequent storage at -196 ° C. Eggs are not frozen together, so they can be used either all at once or individually according to the patient´s or couple ’ s requirements. The egg survival rate after freezing and thawing is 90-97%, the fertilisation rate is 71-79% *. The main advantage of egg freezing is that no sperm is needed at the time of egg retrieval.
As ovarian aging results in a decrease in the total number of eggs in women and a deterioration in their quality, the chances of getting pregnant at the age of 37 are already significantly reduced. This process is irreversible and, after the age of 40, the chances of getting pregnant from your own eggs are minimal. Deterioration of egg quality means a reduction in their fertilisation capacity and an increase in the likelihood of genetic defects. In young women, genetic egg defects * * occur in 20%, in the elderly they reach 50% and continue to increase with age. Therefore, the ideal age for women who consider egg freezing is from 31-35 years of age but this is not a requirement.
* research in patients under 30 years of age
* * specific aneuploids, that means incorrect number of chromosomes