Fertility Preservation

Fertility preservation has become a popular option for individuals and couples who want to safeguard their reproductive potential for the future. Whether due to medical treatments (such as cancer treatments), lifestyle choices, or the desire to delay parenthood, cryopreserving eggs, sperm, or embryos, can provide a chance to grow your family when the time is right.

What is Fertility Preservation?

Fertility preservation involves freezing and storing reproductive cells (eggs, sperm, or embryos) or reproductive tissues (ovarian or testicular tissue) to use in future fertility treatments. These methods are crucial for individuals facing medical procedures or conditions that may permanently impact their fertility, as well as for those delaying parenthood for personal or professional reasons.

Reasons to Consider Fertility Preservation

Fertility preservation may be an excellent option for:

1. Medical Reasons

Cancer Patients: Chemotherapy, radiation, and other cancer treatments can, in some cases, cause permanent sterilization. Preserving eggs, sperm, or embryos before treatment can allow for family-building after recovery.

Autoimmune Diseases: Conditions like lupus, or their treatments, can reduce fertility making it more challenging to conceive in the future.

Endometriosis: This conditions can egg quality over time, making egg freezing a valuable option.

2. Age-Related Decline

Women Delaying Parenthood: A woman’s fertility declines with age, particularly after age 35. Freezing eggs at a younger age preserves their quality and increases the likelihood of a successful pregnancy later in life.

Men Facing Age-Related Decline: While men remain fertile longer, sperm quality does decrease with age. Freezing sperm at a younger age can help ensure higher-quality sperm for future conception.

3. Lifestyle or Personal Choices

Career or Education: Individuals or couples who are focused on advancing their careers, education, or other personal goals may choose to preserve fertility now and start a family later.

Transgender Individuals: Those undergoing gender-affirming treatments may opt to preserve their fertility prior to hormone therapy or surgery, ensuring they can still have biological children in the future.

Fertility Preservation Options

1. Egg Freezing (Oocyte Cryopreservation)

Egg freezing allows women to preserve their eggs at a younger, more fertile age for future use. The basis for egg freezing, is that as women age, both egg quantity and, more importantly, egg quality are compromised- after all, we are born with all the eggs we will have in a lifetime and unfortunately do not make new eggs. As a result, natural conception becomes progressively more difficult with increasing age. This is why women who are single and waiting for the right partner to conceive or who have any of the previously listed indications, benefit greatly from egg freezing if they wish to try and conceive at a later age using their own eggs.

Process: After a course of hormone stimulation to promote the growth of multiple follicles (each containing an egg), the eggs are retrieved in a minimally invasive procedure and frozen using a method called vitrification. This fast-freezing process reduces the risk of ice crystal formation, which could otherwise damage the eggs.

2. Sperm Freezing (Semen Cryopreservation)

Sperm freezing is a simple, non-invasive procedure that allows men to store their sperm for future use. It’s particularly useful for men undergoing medical treatments that might reduce fertility (particularly cancer treatments), or those who want to delay fatherhood.

Process: A semen sample is collected and analyzed for sperm count, motility, and morphology. The sample is then frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen.

3. Embryo Banking (Embryo Cryopreservation)

Embryo baking refers to the creation of embryos for future use. In this case, ovarian stimulation is utilized (similar to egg freezing) to retrieve multiple eggs at once for fertilization with sperm. This option is typically chosen by couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and want to increase their chances of success for future children or to delay childbearing. This is also an option for couples where one partner must undergo fertility preservation for medical reasons.

Process: Following egg retrieval and fertilization, embryos are cultured for 5-7 days before being frozen via vitrification. The frozen embryos can be thawed and used in a future IVF cycle. Prior to freezing, some may opt to biopsy and genetically test the embryos (a process known as preimplantation genetic testing or PGT).

Success Rates for Fertility Preservation

Egg freezing techniques have drastically improved over the years. Prior to 2016, it was still considered experimental but now thaw survival rates are much better thanks to vitrification. Nonetheless, success rates for fertility preservation still depend on factors such as age, the number of eggs or sperm preserved, and the overall health of the individual.

In general:

• Egg Freezing: Female age is the single most important factor for egg quality and future reproductive success, the younger you are when freezing eggs the higher the chance of success. Similarly, the more eggs that are frozen, the better the chances of a future pregnancy.
• Sperm Freezing: Sperm can be stored for many years with little to no decline in quality. Male age is still very important but more forgiving than female age.
• Embryo Freezing: Embryo freezing provides significantly more insight in the potential of eggs and sperm and allows for better counseling regarding future pregnancy success based on the number of chromosomal normal embryos that have been stored. It’s important to note that it does not allow for the same social flexibility with egg or sperm cryopreservation, if creating embryos with a partner- this means in the event of a separation, decisions regarding custody of embryos must be made (including donation, destruction or allowing one partner to have full autonomy on what to do with the embryos).

Want to learn more? Contact us at 310-943-5820 or email BH_Reception@havingbabies.com or fill out a form today to schedule a consultation!