The Process of Egg Freezing
Freezing your eggs to preserve your future fertility is roughly a two-week process that combines home administration of medications with frequent monitoring by your fertility specialist. Patients at our Louisiana fertility center should plan for multiple office visits as they undergo ovarian stimulation with egg freezing.
Ovarian stimulation with egg freezing: A multistep process
The process of ovarian stimulation with egg freezing involves multiple steps, designed to optimize egg production. Throughout the process, you will return to our Louisiana fertility center for frequent visits, so that our fertility specialists can adjust your treatment plan if needed to optimize your results.
- Initial consultation At this first appointment, your fertility specialist will evaluate your medical history and explain the process of ovarian stimulation with egg freezing.
- Testing On the third day of your menstrual cycle, a transvaginal ultrasound and bloodwork will be performed to assess your ovarian reserve and hormone levels. Based on the findings, your fertility specialist will create an ovarian stimulation protocol designed to maximize egg production.
- Birth control pills Before beginning the ovarian stimulation medications, many women first take birth control pills for several weeks. This not only gives more control over the timing of your egg freezing cycle, it can also help your ovaries respond better to fertility drugs and minimize the growth of cysts.
- Ovarian stimulation and monitoring Your customized treatment plan is likely to involve daily subcutaneous and intramuscular injections of ovarian stimulation medication. You will return to our fertility center frequently for ultrasound and bloodwork monitoring to assess follicle development throughout the stimulation phase.
- Trigger shot When follicles reach the right stage of development, you will need to administer one final injection at exactly the right time, 35 hours before your scheduled egg retrieval. Depending on which medication is right for you, this may be either a subcutaneous or intramuscular injection.
- Egg retrieval At the scheduled time, you will return to our Louisiana fertility center, where you will have light sedation while your fertility specialist retrieves your mature eggs transvaginally. This painless, 15-minute procedure is performed using ultrasound guidance and a thin needle, while you are asleep.
- Egg freezing An embryologist will use a process known as vitrification to protect and preserve your eggs until you are ready to use them.
The entire egg freezing process typically takes about three weeks, but may take more or less time depending on your response to medications.
Custom treatment, flexible timeline
As you go through the process of ovarian stimulation with egg freezing, please keep in mind that the timeline we provide you is flexible, and may change depending on your body’s response to medications and other factors. While we may suggest dates when monitoring and retrieval are likely to take place, please allow time in your calendar for those appointments to shift.
To learn more about the process of ovarian stimulation with egg freezing, contact our Louisiana fertility center.
