Fertility Preservation Program

Options for females

Oocyte (egg) and embryo freezing:

While not an option for all females, some young women may have the opportunity to pursue this option when circumstances will allow.

Hormonal medication is used to stimulate the formation of multiple follicles in the ovary which contain eggs. These eggs are then removed in a minor surgical procedure and are frozen for the patient’s potential future use to achieve a pregnancy.

This method is becoming more and more widely accepted, and there have been hundreds of live births from frozen eggs. In a circumstance where the patient has a partner or wishes to use donated sperm, there is also the option of using the eggs to create an embryo, which can also be frozen for future use. Embryo freezing is considered an established method of fertility preservation.

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation:

Ovarian tissue freezing is available for all ages including young girls that have not yet had puberty. The advantage of ovarian tissue freezing is that the procedure can be done quickly and does not require time to stimulate eggs in the ovary with medication.

Ovarian tissue freezing also requires a minor surgical procedure. In this process, doctors surgically remove either an entire ovary or a part of an ovary. The tissue is then processed, frozen, and stored for future use.

When the patient wishes to become pregnant, the tissue can be thawed and re-implanted. In successful transplants, the tissue starts producing hormones and eggs. There is also active research in extracting immature eggs from ovarian tissue in the laboratory and maturing them for use in in-vitro fertilization, without re-implanting the tissue.

So far, successful pregnancies have only occurred after re-implanting the tissue. However, in the future it may be possible to have a pregnancy without having to have the tissue reimplanted. While ovarian tissue freezing holds a lot of promise, it is still considered experimental.