Until recently, egg freezing was an experimental procedure with limited success in only a few select programs around the world. However, the use of a specific type of freezing called vitrification, has led to a dramatic improvement in oocyte (egg) survival, fertilization rates, and pregnancy rates.
Social Egg Freezing : In today’s world of unable to met the right person to get married to, late marriages and couples postponing to have children to when they are ready, freezing eggs at the right age is a good option which will reduce the future risk of having difficulty in conceiving as well as prevent the risk of age related geneticproblems later on.
As a method for fertility preservation in cancer patients
Women with endometriosis who may have reduced ovarian reserve.
Women with autoimmune diseases requiring gonadotoxic treatment.
Women with genetica berrations leading to subfertility or risk of early menopause
Fertility preservation in sex change surgery surgery.
In addition, now that assessment of ovarian reserve is widely available using biophysical (antral follicle count) and biochemical (Anti-Mullerian hormone, early follicular FSH) measures, many women who are asymptomatic are identified as being at risk of early menopause. Although ovarian reserve measurement has not been shown to have predictive value for spontaneous pregnancy, it is a reasonable strategy for these women to consider elective oocyte cryopreservation.
Situation where a male partner fails to produce a sperm sample on the day of oocyte retrieval for IVF . The efficacy of ‘emergency’ oocyte cryopreservation was demonstrated in cases during which sperm extraction from male partners with non-obstructive azoospermia had failed . Oocyte pooling – in women who have a low antral follicle count and low AMH , eggs are retrieved over a period of 2 to 3 cycles or more and after adequate pooling /collection and freezing , thawing , ICSI and embryo transfer can be done .
Oocyte donation – cryobanking. In this the eggs retrieved from a donor can be frozen and stored. These frozen eggs can be quarantined for 3 to 6 months. After 3 to 6 months, the original donor can undergo repeat test for HIV, HbSag, VDRL, and HCV. Only those frozen-stored eggs of donor who test negative for HIV, HBSAg, VDRL & HCV after 3 to 6 months can be utilised for egg donation. This is optional and is done for those patients who specifically opt for it. It is not done routinely