Cryopreservation

When you complete in vitro fertilization (IVF), many embryos are created. You will likely have enough embryos to get pregnant more than once. You can freeze some embryos for later pregnancies. Embryos can be stored for many years. More than half of your embryos will be healthy after thawing.

You can bank sperm for future use. Frozen sperm stay healthy for a long time. Once thawed, sperm can be used in fertility treatments like intrauterine insemination or IVF.

Before you can freeze your embryos, they must be created. Here’s how the process works:

• You take hormones and fertility medicines to help your body produce eggs.

• Your doctor harvests the eggs.

• Your doctor exposes the eggs to sperm.

• If you choose IVF, sperm are placed with the eggs in a laboratory for fertilization to take place. The embryos develop for six days.

• If intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is used, your doctor injects one sperm into each egg. The fertilized eggs divide for six days.

• Your fertility team chooses the healthiest embryos for freezing.

• The doctor places the embryos in a cryoprotectant solution. The cryoprotectant replaces the water in the cells.

• The doctor cools the embryos to a preservation state.

To freeze sperm, a method similar to embryo cryopreservation is used:

• You provide a sperm sample.

• The doctor places the sperm in a cryoprotectant solution. The cryoprotectant replaces the water in the cells.

• The doctor cools the sperm to a frozen state.