Learning about the egg freezing process is the first step to preserve those beautiful eggs
If you’re thinking that egg freezing could be a good option, you probably have some questions. Some of the most common questions that our Las Vegas egg freezing experts answer are about the egg freezing process. What are the different egg freezing steps? Does the process take a long time? What happens when I want to have a baby someday? The team at The Fertility Center of Las Vegas is here to shed some light on these questions and offer you peace of mind.
Taking a quick look at the egg freezing process
When you want to freeze your eggs, you’ll start a process that mimics the first stages of in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, the process is easier and faster than you may think. In fact, you’ll typically be done with all the egg freezing steps within 10-14 days.
Taking daily injectable fertility medications is the first step of the egg freezing process. Our nurses will teach you how to give yourself these injections. We’ll also be available to answer any questions that come up when you get home.
While taking these medications, you’ll visit our Las Vegas egg freezing experts every few days for monitoring. Your doctor will use bloodwork and ultrasounds to monitor your response to the medications. Monitoring also helps your doctor decide when your eggs are mature.
Once your eggs have reached maturity, you’ll take an injection to trigger ovulation, which releases the eggs. About 36 hours later, you will have an outpatient egg retrieval procedure. You’ll receive light sedation for the procedure so that you stay calm and comfortable.
You’ll briefly recover from the procedure before returning home the same day. During this time, embryologists in the lab will examine your eggs before freezing them. Freezing occurs using an advanced procedure called vitrification.
The embryologist will then send your eggs to a secure, long-term storage facility like Ovation® Fertility Storage Solutions. Your eggs remain there until you’re ready to use them to conceive.
Conceiving after fertility preservation involves a few simple steps
No discussion of the egg freezing process would be complete without talking about conceiving using frozen eggs. When you decide you’re ready to try for a baby using your frozen eggs, the storage facility will send the eggs to the embryologists. They will then thaw your eggs and fertilize them with sperm using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The sperm will come from either your partner or your chosen sperm donor.
Finally, one of our Las Vegas egg freezing experts will transfer one of the resulting embryos into your uterus. About two weeks later, you’ll have a pregnancy test at our clinic. Then, you and our team will hopefully celebrate the good news together.
If you have more questions about the egg freezing steps, our team can help. Contact us to schedule an appointment to learn more and get started.
