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Egg Freezing
EGG (OOCYTE) AND OVARIAN TISSUE FREEZING
The ability to freeze (cryopreserve) sperm and embryos has been technically feasible and a widely practiced procedure for more than a decade. The ability to freeze eggs and ovarian tissue has been much more difficult for a wide range of physiological reasons. Much scientific work has gone into exploring the techniques to successfully cryopreserve mature oocytes and ovarian tissue. We now believe that with the advances made to date, we can offer such a treatment in selected cases.
Indications for freezing oocytes/ovarian tissue:
1. An imminent premature menopause. Most often this is as a result of planned chemotherapy and /or radiotherapy for cancer treatment. Chemotherapy may also be used for patients who have a severe medical condition. Depending on the dosage and duration of treatment there is a variable probability that the patient will undergo a premature menopause. When the chance of premature menopause is high the option of storing oocytes or ovarian tissue prior to chemotherapy is discussed.
2. Future premature menopause. Some women have approached us to freeze oocytes for their daughters who have recently been diagnosed as having Turner's syndrome. This condition results in their daughters having a premature menopause before they ever have periods. If the women were to wait until their daughters were of an age to use donated oocytes they themselves would have gone through the menopause. Therefore the question of storing oocytes whilst they are still in the reproductive time of their life is considered.
3. Ethical and moral considerations. Some patients participating on an IVF program have moral or ethical beliefs against freezing supernumerary embryos. The ability to cryopreserve oocytes prior to fertilisation means that if they are surplus to requirements, then in the future their disposal would not raise some of the moral or ethical dilemmas that the disposal of embryos may.
Freezing of oocytes
1. Mature oocytes. These oocytes are
collected after an ovarian hyperstimulation cycle and cryopreserved as mature oocytes.
2. Immature oocytes. These oocytes may be collected from ovarian tissue and frozen as immature oocytes. Occasionally they may also come from aspiration of small cysts within the ovary.
3. Freezing of ovarian tissue. A laparoscopic technique is utilised to retrieve either a portion of one ovary or the complete ovary for freezing. After the ovarian tissue is sliced thinly into multiple sections the cryoprotectant is added so that the tissue can be frozen.
Current status of Egg Freezing
Most research has focused on the ability to cryopreserve mature oocytes. Viable pregnancies have been obtained from the application of this technique. There remains much research to be performed on the freezing of ovarian tissue. The big challenge in this area is to successfully mature in vitro the ovarian tissue and immature oocytes. There has not been a pregnancy achieved from such techniques to date.
*Please contact our Scientific Director, Adnan Catakovic on 3839 2444 for more information.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Please be assured that all services are provided in a completely discreet and confidential environment.
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