Egg Freezing and Vitrification

The laboratory at our Southern California fertility center developed the MicroSecure Vitrification egg freezing process

Vitrification is a rapid egg freezing process. In the past, IVF labs used a slow freezing process. It presented challenges and made it more difficult to successfully preserve eggs. These challenges existed because female eggs, oocytes, have a high water content.

During slow freezing, crystallization could occur. The resulting ice crystals then had the potential to damage or even fracture the egg during the thawing process. The second problem occurred during the slow freezing process when the water in the eggs expanded as it froze. This caused damage to the egg membranes.

Vitrification solved both of these problems. First, the process is extremely fast, which eliminates the threat of crystallization. Second, new cryoprotectants not only remove some of the water within the eggs, but they also protect eggs from rupture or tissue damage.

How vitrification works

Women who want to become mothers in the future may choose to freeze their healthy eggs to use for their future family. Women who need to undergo chemotherapy or cancer treatment may also opt for egg freezing to preserve their future fertility.

Whatever the reason, when a woman chooses egg freezing at our Southern California fertility center, we begin MicroSecure Vitrification by placing her eggs in a highly concentrated bath of cryoprotectants and sucrose.

Next, the eggs are placed in liquid nitrogen in which they are frozen very quickly. Studies show that eggs can be stored for up to 10 years without degrading their quality. It may be possible to store eggs for longer periods of time, but current studies have only been conducted on eggs stored for 10 years or fewer. Our Southern California fertility center offers long-term egg storage for our egg freezing patients.

More about the process at our Southern California fertility center

Recently, our Southern California fertility center conducted a laboratory study that compared our MicroSecure Vitrification with the slow freezing method for egg freezing. Results showed that our vitrification method yielded a survival rate of 90% for egg survival after thawing. Subsequent to thawing, those eggs had an 81% rate of fertilization. After transferring an average of just over two embryos per patient, we achieved a 39% implantation rate, and a 47% rate of live births, resulting in healthy births and babies who exhibited normal patterns of childhood development at their 1-year physical examinations.

Our Southern California fertility center laboratory developed the MicroSecure Vitrification procedure in 2008. We perform our egg freezing process with exceptional attention to quality control, reliability, safety and security. This procedure for oocyte preservation, or egg freezing, has proven to be highly successful, yielding some of the highest pregnancy and live birth rates in the U.S.

To schedule a consultation for egg freezing, contact us here.

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361 Hospital Road, Suite 333
Newport Beach, California 92663

949-642-8727

Find Out if You are a Candidate for Egg Freezing

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MicroSecure Vitrification

Our Southern California fertility center conducted a laboratory study that compared our MicroSecure Vitrification with the slow freezing method for egg freezing.  The study was performed by SCIRS (now Ovation® Fertility).  Results showed that our vitrification method yielded a survival rate of 90% for egg survival after thawing.  Subsequent to thawing, those eggs had an 81% rate of fertilization. After transferring an average of just over two embryos per patient, we achieved a 39% implantation rate, and a 47% rate of live births, resulting in healthy births and babies who exhibited normal patterns of childhood development at their 1-year physical examinations.

Read more about the study here.