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Egg Freezing

As more women are waiting longer to have children, egg freezing is becoming more relevant and in demand as many women are facing the real challenge of having successful, healthy pregnancies later in life. While we have made great strides in other areas, our fertility is still limited by basic biology - the "biological clock" generally stops ticking in our late 30's or early 40's. Our opportunities are endless, but our egg supply and egg quality are not, that is why more women are seeking egg freezing services.

Egg Freezing offers women planning to have children after the age of 35 the opportunity to effectively slow down their biological clocks. Extend Fertility's egg freezing services give women the unprecedented chance to store their eggs during their reproductive prime for use when they wish to start or expand their families.

          

Egg Freezing Facts, Breakthroughs & Accomplishments

In the past, difficulty with egg freezing was due to an egg's tendency to develop ice crystals during the freezing process (which compromise the integrity of the egg), as well as hardening of the egg's outer membrane, making fertilization difficult. Two recent breakthroughs have allowed scientists to overcome these egg freezing problems.

The first is the development of a new culture media system that protects from damage during the egg freezing/thawing process. The media system dehydrates eggs during egg freezing and rehydrates the egg during thawing, thereby minimizing the formation of ice crystals during the egg freezing process. The second breakthrough in egg freezing is a fertilization technique known as ICSI (Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection). With ICSI egg freezing services, the embryologist injects the egg with a single sperm in order to fertilize it.

While egg freezing is still considered investigational by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, by applying these new advances in cryopreservation, our scientists have realized a sharp increase in post-thaw survival rates (as high as 90%) and fertilization rates (as high as 80%). These egg freezing improvements have led to pregnancy success rates from frozen eggs of up to 35% per embryo transfer, and have facilitated a dramatic increase in the number of babies born from frozen eggs to over 200 worldwide.

Extend Fertility takes great pride in helping to empower women to feel more in control of their bodies and lives with top line information on egg freezing and female fertility. Read what our egg freezing clients are saying about freezing their eggs and working with Extend Fertility.

The ability to postpone motherhood through egg freezing was made possible by the discovery that the age of a woman's eggs is more important than her biological age. In the last two decades, even post-menopausal women have become pregnant and delivered babies by using donor eggs from much younger women. Those developments created the incentive to preserve a woman's own eggs by egg freezing while the women are still young. Female fertility peaks at age 27 and by age 40, the chance of getting pregnant is less than 10%. Egg freezing and egg harvesting enable women to break free from the stressful drumbeat of their biological clock.

Eventually, egg freezing is expected to have an effect on egg donation by allowing one donor to store eggs that could be used by several recipients. Still, perhaps the most compelling current use of egg freezing is to benefit women with diseases that could interfere with fertility.

How egg freezing works

• Extract eggs Woman receives drugs to produce multiple eggs. Ultrasound-guided needles are used to harvest eggs from the ovary.
• Identify The eggs, which are in fluid when extracted, are poured onto a flat dish. Individual eggs are identified with a microscope and withdrawn for freezing.
• Prepare for egg freezing Because ice crystals can form within the eggs and damage them, technicians remove the water from the eggs and bathe them in an 'antifreeze' solution before egg freezing. Laboratories vary in how they conduct the egg freezing process and freeze the female eggs. Some prefer a slow egg freezing technique, while others use a flash egg freezing process called vitrification.
• Freeze Eggs are stored in tubes in a liquid nitrogen storage tank.
• Thaw and fertilize each egg, is then thawed and injected with a needle containing a single sperm--a procedure called ICSI. Eggs begin to develop into embryos.
• Implant Embryos are implanted into the uterus using a catheter.

Egg Freezing Client Profiles

Megan (Woman age 36), Classical Acupuncturist Seattle, Washington WA (USA)
On why she decided to participate in egg freezing with Extend Fertility:
"I was starting to feel that my desire to have children was putting pressure on my current relationship... deciding to participate in egg freezing helped me to separate the issues - yes, I want to have children, yes, I am in a relationship, but my desire to have children shouldn't cloud whether we should be having children together. I don't want to have children until I feel emotionally and financially prepared."

On how she feels now:
"Egg Freezing are a very empowering processes. I know there are no guarantees in this world, but it is a fantastic feeling to know I've done what I can to preserve my fertility along the way. Somehow egg freezing was really affirming of what I want in my life, even though I am not having children right this minute. I know I want to be a mother more strongly than when I began... It has removed some of the judgment of myself and self-criticism of wishing I had done this or that differently, or some blame I've placed on myself for not having children yet. I feel far less anxious about the future, no matter what the outcome - whether I get pregnant naturally at some point, whether I use these eggs, whether I adopt. Now it's just more about becoming a mother eventually than judging my body for being not the "perfect" age biologically."

On working with Extend Fertility in Egg Freezing:
"I felt very supported by the women at Extend Fertility - like they were truly my partners in this adventure, their egg freezing services help me and women like me to have more choices in the future. The women at Extend are smart, capable, kind women, there to help me achieve this thing I want. Working with Extend Fertility was so refreshing compared with trying to explain to others, even doctors, why I was worried about my fertility, and not having them get it or just give trite answers (like, "why make a such a big deal about this?", "you're plenty young", etc.). I really liked having these women support me in making the possibility of egg preservation and egg freezing real."

On advice for women considering egg freezing with Extend Fertility:
"Listen to yourself. Consider what is most important to you, and don't worry about what other people have to say about it. Nobody can know but you what is truly important to you and how you want to make that happen. When I decided on egg freezing and that I was going to do it, and was in the process of it, I talked very openly to people about it as it was happening... At the coffee shop...how are you today? I'm great! I'm freezing my eggs! Because I found the experience totally empowering."

Alexandra (Woman age 34), Pharmaceutical Sales Boston, Massachusetts MA (USA)
On why she decided to freeze her eggs by egg freezing:
"Having a family has always been incredibly important to me and working in the medical community made me all too aware of the fact that my aging eggs could potentially jeopardize that dream. I also didn't want to rush into a marriage that wasn't right solely to have children. Egg freezing has removed the pressure."

On how she feels now:
"I feel truly amazing...Relieved! I work in the women's health care arena so I'm constantly bombarded with the scary biological clock story. I realized last week that I was listening to yet another horrifying presentation on the perils facing future mothers over 30 and for the first time I didn't having a panic attack! I realized that I had taken control and done what I could to ensure the best chance of having a healthy and happy baby in the future by egg freezing. It's also really nice that now thinking about having a family brings a sense of excitement because it just seems like much more of a reality and not a deadline that I am terrified of missing."

On working with the Extend Fertility Egg Freezing Professionals:
"I did a lot of research on egg freezing programs and several of the female fertility clinics I contacted that advertised egg freezing and egg harvesting just didn't seem to know much about it - I often felt like they were reading from a script. They also made me feel like I would be a peripheral egg freezing patient because I wasn't doing IVF - egg freezing was just not what they specialized in. Then I contacted Extend Fertility about Egg Freezing and everything was totally different. It was amazing and reassuring to work with women who had actually participated in egg freezing or frozen their eggs themselves! I didn't have to justify why I was pursuing egg freezing...they totally got me. The best part of the egg freezing process was that they had actually taken the medications and had their own eggs frozen so they really knew what they were talking about and what I could expect. I can't say enough about the confidence they instilled in me and the emotional support they provided me at every step in the egg freezing process."

On advice for other women considering egg freezing:
"If you're over 33 and single or involved in a fast track career you must consider egg freezing now. I promise it will change your life. The women at Extend Fertility will absolutely help you with all aspects of egg freezing. You will NEVER regret egg freezing having frozen eggs...but you could very seriously regret not having preserved your eggs or participating in an egg freezing program when you had the chance."

Extend Fertility, Inc.
329 Washington Street | Suite 200 | Woburn, Massachusetts MA (USA) 01801
Phone: (800) 841-7197 | Outside U.S.: (617) 987-0506 | Fax: (617) 987-2137

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