An Overview on Egg Freezing

Egg Freezing has become quite popular over the past few years. Women find it appealing to be able to preserve their fertility for medical, lifestyle or career reasons. A variety of companies including Apple and Facebook even assist their employees with the financial costs of Egg Freezing. According to WebMD, there have now been more than 2,000 live births from frozen eggs, about 1,000 within the past 5 years.

The Egg Freezing process is done for a variety of reasons:

•            Cancer or other radiation treated diseases

•            Delay motherhood to pursue educational, career or personal life goals (fertility preservation)

In order to retrieve eggs for freezing, a woman undergoes the same hormone-injection process as in-vitro fertilization. The only difference is that, following egg retrieval, the eggs are frozen.

It takes approximately 4-6 weeks to complete the egg freezing cycle and the steps are the same as the initial stages of the IVF process including:

•2-4 weeks of birth control pills to temporarily turn off natural hormones

•10-14 days of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and mature multiple eggs.

Once the eggs have adequately matured, they are removed with a needle placed through the vagina under ultrasound guidance. This procedure is done under intravenous sedation and is not painful. The eggs are then frozen within few hours.

The Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine recommends and practices a newer freezing technique called Vitrification. This process is ultra-rapid cooling (not true freezing) and reduces potential egg freezing risks. Frozen embryos remain viable for an infinite amount of time after the initial freeze.

When a woman is ready to try to conceive, the eggs are thawed, fertilized using OCSI with partner’s sperm, and transferred to the uterus 5 days later as embryos. This process is called Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET). The eggs will be the exact age and quality of the time period she froze them, regardless how many years have gone by. The pregnancy success rates related to a Frozen Embryo Transfer depend on the women’s age at the time she froze her eggs.

The Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine invite you to learn more about the Egg Freezing process by visiting: http://www.vcrmed.com/other-services/egg-freezing-program/

Egg Donation: Earn $8,000 while helping make a couples dream come true

Are you interested in becoming an Egg Donor? Its women like you that help make the dream of having a family a reality for those struggling with infertility.

Healthy women aged 21-31 may qualify to be a donor for our anonymous egg donor program.

To help us determine your eligibility for the program, please complete the confidential questionnaire by visiting: http://www.vcrmed.com/donate-eggs/

*Please note, women must have medical insurance to qualify as an egg donor

Once accepted into the donor program you may donate a maximum of six times. Upon completion of a cycle, you will be compensated $8,000 for your time, effort and commitment.

Your donation would be a precious gift to infertile couples whose only chance of conceiving is through the generosity of women like you!

The steps for egg donation are listed below:

Step One

Complete the initial application. This form assists our Donor Team in determining if you qualify for our Egg Donor Program.

Step Two

If you qualify for the program, you will be sent an email with the next steps and a link to complete a comprehensive online application.

Step Three

Once the comprehensive application is approved and you are accepted into our anonymous egg donor program, your initial consultation will be scheduled with our nurse coordinator. During this visit, the donation process will be discussed in detail. In order to complete the medical portion of the donor application process, a variety of medical tests will also be scheduled at this time for a later date. These medical tests must be performed at specific points throughout your menstrual cycle and for that reason, may require more than one visit. After all testing is completed, reviewed and approved by the VCRM physician, you will be formally matched with a recipient and the donation cycle will be scheduled. All costs for your medical care will be covered by the recipient.

Step Four

Once the egg donation cycle begins, you will be put on birth control pills followed by injectable medications for up to 13 days to stimulate production of multiple eggs in your ovaries. At the same time, the recipient’s uterus is being prepared to receive the resulting embryos. Once the eggs have matured, you will be scheduled for your retrieval. You will be given IV sedation and your eggs will be retrieved via transvaginal ultrasound with a needle guide.

Step Five

Once the eggs have been retrieved, your portion of the egg donation process is complete. In our laboratory, the donor eggs will be mixed with sperm to fertilize. Three to six days following egg retrieval, the developing embryos will be transferred to the recipient’s uterus. A pregnancy test will be performed on the recipient in 11 days. The anonymous egg donation process, from initial application to egg retrieval, may take up to three months to complete. The initial screening tests can be arranged to accommodate your schedule. Blood work will be taken and ultrasounds will be performed to check your hormone levels and visualize the number and size of your egg follicles. These monitoring visits are extremely important; not only do they ensure your safety throughout the process, but they also provide essential information that will help us maximize the success of the cycle.

You can contact us with any questions by calling 703-437-7722