Neurodiversity information for parents and young people
Preserving fertility is done to try to help you have a family in the future.
Egg freezing is one way of doing this. It is a process where eggs are collected and frozen. These are then thawed out later to be used in fertility treatment.
The process of egg freezing
Egg freezing involves:
- stimulation of ovaries
- egg collection.
Stimulation of ovaries
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One injection every day for around two weeks This is to stimulate egg production |
These are injections of follicle stimulating hormone. They encourage your ovaries to produce eggs. A follicle is a small, fluid filled sac in the ovary that may contain an egg. Before treatment starts a nurse will show you or your partner/friend how to give all the injections. |
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Injections to stop the release of eggs One injection every day starting on day 6 of stimulation |
These injections keep the eggs in their follicles until it is time for egg collection. Before treatment starts a nurse will show you or your partner/friend how to give all the injections. |
| Vaginal ultrasound scans every 2 to 3 days to see the number and size of the follicles in the ovaries | This tells us when we should collect the eggs. It also allows us to alter your dose of medications as needed. |
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| Trigger injection to make eggs mature | Once the follicles are large enough and the eggs are ready to be collected, you will take a third type of injection. This is self-administered and taken 36 hours before egg collection. |
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| Egg collection | |
Egg collection
When your eggs are ready to be collected (usually after 10 to 12 days of ovarian stimulation) the nurses will give you an instruction sheet telling you exactly what you need to do.
On the day of the procedure, you will meet the anaesthetist and the theatre team as well the doctor who will be performing the procedure. They will explain what will be happening and you can ask any questions.
The procedure is called a ‘vaginal egg collection’. The eggs are collected with a needle via the wall of the vagina.
Egg collection is done at Kingston hospital in an operating theatre (a special clean room used for operations and other procedures). Depending on the number of follicles on each ovary, the procedure can take from 10 to 30 minutes.
We will give you a sedation medicine to make you very sleepy, and analgesia so that you do not feel pain during the procedure. You will not be fully asleep, but you will be very relaxed and hardly aware of what is going on. You will need to take the entire day off work.
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Once in theatre, the doctor will insert a needle into a vein in the back of your hand. Through this they will give you a strong painkiller and strong sedation. Your legs will be placed in stirrups. |
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An ultrasound probe with needle attached is used to collect the eggs from the ovaries. The probe is inserted into your vagina and the needle is then guided through the wall of the vagina into the two ovaries in turn. The needle is used to puncture and drain every follicle. |
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The fluid from each follicle is collected in a test tube and placed in an incubator. You will need a relative, partner or friend to take the incubator containing the fluid to Kings Fertility Clinic immediately after the egg collection. At Kings Fertility the embryologists will carefully examine the fluid and freeze all the suitable eggs that are collected. |
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Following the egg collection, you will rest in the theatre recovery area for an hour and a half or so until you feel able to go home. You will still feel drowsy so your relative, partner or a friend must take you home once they return from Kings Fertility. |
Sometimes you may get fewer eggs collected than expected. Very occasionally we do not collect any eggs. This may be for a number of reasons.
- The ovaries may not have responded well to the hormone injections.
- Sometimes many follicles develop but without mature eggs.
- Although the doctor will drain every follicle possible, not all contain an egg.
- Very occasionally it is not possible to reach the ovaries.
Risks of egg collection
Although egg collection is a common procedure there are some risks.
Bleeding
The needle used to collect the eggs might accidentally puncture a blood vessel. This can cause bleeding either into the vagina or into the abdomen.
Bleeding into the vagina is quite common and easy to treat. We simply press on the bleeding point for a few minutes until the bleeding stops or we give you medication that helps stop bleeding.
Bleeding internally is very rare but may require admission to hospital. You would then have an operation with general anaesthetic to stop the bleeding.
Puncture
The needle might accidentally puncture the bladder or the bowel or any other organs in the pelvis.
This may cause leakage of urine into the surrounding tissues, bleeding into the bladder, or leakage of bowel contents into the abdomen.
These complications might settle down without treatment but could cause pain and infection.
Infection
The needle might cause an infection.
It is impossible to make the vagina free from germs. Therefore, there is a small risk that the needle might carry germs from the vagina into your abdomen. In some people this might cause an infection, which can lead to an abscess.
It can take several weeks for an infection to show. It might need admission to hospital and an operation to drain the abscess. The serious complications described above are rare and may occur once in every thousand procedures performed in the unit.
After egg collection
It is common to have some crampy, period-like pain and light bleeding for around 24 to 72 hours after egg collection. To relieve this pain, you can take paracetamol or similar pain medicine that can be bought without prescription.
Urgent contact
Contact Kingston ACU nurses immediately if you feel particularly unwell, with sharp pain, fainting or a fever.
During normal working hours:
- 020 8934 3155.
Outside of normal working hours:
- a nurse is on-call and can be contacted on the emergency number provided on the ACU voicemail message.
The bleeding should get lighter over the first few days. Use sanitary towels not tampons. This is to reduce the risk of infection.
Contact us on 020 8934 3155 if the bleeding gets heavier or just does not stop.
Expect to have your period within the next two weeks. Tampons can be used for this.
Around one week after egg collection the ACU nurses will contact you to check how you are following the egg collection procedure.
Recovery
The egg collection is a medical procedure that involves sedation.
It is important that you do not drive for the rest of the day. You must be driven home and should not take public transport.
Due to the sedation, a responsible adult must go home with you. You must not drive or operate machinery for 24 hours. Following your sedated procedure, we recommend you take the next 24 hours off from work.
Egg storage at Kings Fertility
Your eggs will be frozen, ready for fertility treatments later. This is called ‘egg vitrification’ or ‘cryopreservation’.
Only mature eggs can be frozen. Not all the eggs collected will be mature.
The eggs have some water removed and are then frozen so quickly that ice crystals do not form.
On the afternoon of your egg collection, the embryologists at Kings Fertility Clinic will tell you how many eggs have been collected and how many eggs have been frozen and stored for future use.
When you are ready to use the eggs, you will have to give us written permission to thaw them.
We will also help you decide how many eggs you would like thawed.
Once thawed, embryo creation is attempted using ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection). This is the injection of one sperm into each egg. Fertilised eggs, then known as embryos, are cultured for 5 days. Then a maximum of two embryos are transferred into the womb. Any spare good-quality embryos remaining after transfer can be frozen and stored for future use.
The law permits you to store frozen eggs (or embryos created using your eggs) for up to 55 years.
You must give written permission to store your eggs (also called ‘consent to storage’). You can give permission for up to 10 years at a time. There is also a yearly storage charge.
Before your consent comes to an end, you will be contacted by the laboratory storing your eggs. You will be asked if you wish to renew your consent to storage.
When considering how long to store for, there are things to consider and discuss with us:
- how far in the future might you want to, or be able to, use stored eggs
- the costs of storing.
We do recommend that embryos are created and used in treatment before you reach the age of 50. Please note that embryos can only be stored if the sperm provider has also given consent.
Contact us or Kings Fertility Clinic at any stage if you want to change your storage period or withdraw your consent to storage. At that time, you will be offered further counselling, given relevant information, and asked to complete another consent form.
You must tell us and Kings Fertility Clinic if your contact details change because we will need to contact you about your consent to storage. If Kings Fertility are unable to contact you when your consent to storage ends, your eggs and/or embryos will have to be disposed of. You will be given more information on this when you complete your consent forms.
International follow-up studies of children born after egg freezing have not revealed any increased risk of problems during pregnancy or increased risk of birth defects.
Research is still being done to see if freezing eggs for a long time causes any damage. There is not yet enough evidence to say for sure either way.
Studies have shown that treatment success rates with frozen eggs are as good as with fresh eggs. However, we do not yet know how these rates apply to women who to choose to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons. This is because not many women have returned to use their eggs yet.
Some research has shown that up to 60 in 100 women got pregnant using frozen eggs. However, the age of the mother when her eggs were frozen is important. The chances of getting pregnant are better the younger you are.
During the research, there were no births from women who froze their eggs when they were 40 years old and over. We do not generally recommend egg freezing to women over 40 as results are poor.
Another important issue is how many eggs to preserve to have at least one child.
It is difficult to say the ideal number of eggs to give the best chance to conceive. This is because successful pregnancy depends on many factors, including the age and health of the mother, how many eggs are left in the ovaries (egg count), and the father's health and sperm quality.
No number of eggs can offer a guarantee for future conception.
Chances are better if more than 10 eggs are frozen. Research has been done to predict how many eggs would be best. For example, in women younger than 38 years who start treatment with 20 eggs, 75 out of 100 are likely to have at least one baby.
The research also shows that the chance of success is highly dependent on how old the mother is when the eggs are frozen. Women who freeze their eggs when they are over 40 years are unlikely to get pregnant using the frozen eggs.
Freezing too few eggs also limits the possibility of success. Some women require more than one round of IVF to produce a reasonable number of eggs to give a good chance to conceive in future.
More information
HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Association) has more information on egg freezing.
Contact information
Kingston Assisted Conception Unit nurses