Embryo freezing is a procedure that allows people to store embryos for later use. A person can also freeze eggs, which are not fertilized. An embryo forms after fertilization and after the cells start to divide.
The first successful pregnancy resulting from freezing a healthy embryo took place in the 1980s. Since then, many people have frozen embryos and used them later.
A person may decide to store an embryo if they hope to become pregnant in the future, to donate to others, for medical research, or for training purposes.
The process begins by using hormones and other medications to stimulate the production of potentially fertile eggs. A doctor then extracts the eggs from the ovaries, either for fertilizing in a lab or for freezing.
Successful fertilization may lead to at least one healthy embryo. A doctor can then transfer the embryo to the womb, or uterus. If the treatment is successful, the embryo will develop.
Fertilization often results in more than one embryo, and the doctor can freeze and preserve the remaining embryos.
What is an embryo, and how do people create one?
According to an article published in the journal Human Reproduction, the medical community uses the term embryo from the moment that cells divide after fertilization until the eighth week of pregnancy.
Before freezing can take place, people need to create suitable embryos. To do so in the laboratory, doctors must harvest and fertilize some eggs.
First, the person will take hormones to make sure that ovulation happens on schedule. They will then take fertility medications to increase the number of eggs that they produce.
In the hospital, a doctor will extract the eggs, using an ultrasound machine to ensure accuracy.
A person may wish to freeze their eggs. Or, they may wish to use them at once to become pregnant. In this case, the doctor may recommend in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
During IVF, the doctor exposes the eggs to sperm and leaves them in a laboratory for fertilization to take place. After this, the correct term for a fertilized egg is an embryo.
An embryologist will monitor the development of the embryos over the next 6 days, after which they may choose a suitable embryo for implantation.
During ICSI, the doctor extracts the eggs and injects a single sperm directly into an egg.
They may do this if there is a problem with the sperm or if past attempts at IVF have not resulted in fertilization. The doctor may use one embryo and freeze the others.
How do people freeze embryos?
The main aim of freezing embryos is to preserve them for later use.
The biggest challenge is the water within the cells. When this water freezes, crystals can form and burst the cell.
Cryopreservation
To prevent this from happening, the doctor uses a process called cryopreservation. It involves replacing the water in the cell with a substance called a cryoprotectant.
The doctor then leaves the embryos to incubate in increasing levels of cryoprotectant before freezing them.
After removing most of the water, the doctor cools the embryo to its preservation state. They then use one of two freezing methods:
Slow freezing: This involves placing the embryos in sealed tubes, then slowly lowering their temperature. It prevents the embryo’s cells from aging and reduces the risk of damage. However, slow freezing is time-consuming, and it requires expensive machinery.
Vitrification: In this process, the doctor freezes the cryoprotected embryos so quickly that the water molecules do not have time to form ice crystals. This helps protect the embryos and increases their rate of survival during thawing.
After the process of freezing is complete, the doctor stores the embryos in liquid nitrogen.
Success rates of thawing frozen embryos
The process of thawing an embryo after cryopreservation has a relatively high success rate, and research suggests that women who use thawed embryos have good chances of delivering healthy babies.
According to a comparative study and review published in 2016, babies born after cryopreservation showed no increase in developmental abnormalities. However, the medical community still requires more long-term follow-up studies.
Some research indicates that, compared with slow freezing, vitrification increases an embryo’s chance of survival, both at the freezing stage and during thawing.
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