Not everyone is ready to have children at the same time, and if you want to wait until later in life, you might consider fertility preservation.
Preserving your fertility allows you to save your embryos, eggs, sperm and reproductive tissues until some point in the future.
Here, we’ll explore the most common means of fertility preservation.
In this article:
Egg Freezing
Egg freezing is when a woman’s eggs are collected and frozen to be thawed and used in fertility treatment later.
You might choose to freeze your eggs if:
- You’re worried about your fertility declining but are not yet ready to have a child
- You don’t want to have any remaining embryos that were not used after IVF
- You have a medical condition which may affect your fertility.
Having your eggs collected and frozen can cost around £3,350.
Sperm Freezing
Men can freeze their sperm to use in their own fertility treatment or as a donation to store for someone else’s. Sperm freezing is the most common method of fertility preservation for men.
You may want to think about freezing your sperm if:
- You have a low sperm count.
- You have a medical condition which may affect your fertility.
- You’re unable to produce a sperm sample on the day of fertility treatment.
- The quality of your sperm is deteriorating.
In the U.K., frozen sperm can be stored for up to 55 years.
Embryo Freezing
After IVF or ICSI treatment, there may be some good quality embryos left post-embryo transfer.
Rather than getting rid of them, patients have the opportunity to freeze the remaining embryos to use in the future. The embryos are put in special substances, frozen, and stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen until you need them.
You might choose to freeze some embryos to use at a later date if:
- Your treatment needs to be postponed after egg collection.
- You have a medical condition which may affect your fertility.
- You’re a trans person wanting to preserve your fertility before starting hormone therapy.
It’s possible to preserve your embryos at different stages of their development.
Ovarian tissue freezing
Ovarian tissue freezing is a type of fertility preservation for patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy or stem cell transplants, who are unable to freeze their eggs.
During a short operation, surgeons check both ovaries and remove one. Tissue samples are then taken from the ovary, frozen, and stored. When the patient is thinking about starting a family, and wants to use the frozen tissue, it is reimplanted.
Worldwide around 150 babies have been born after ovarian tissue cryopreservation.
Testicular tissue freezing
Some treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, bone marrow transplant can have a negative effect on fertility. Testicular tissue freezing is a means of fertility preservation especially for young boys faced with those treatments.
During a surgical procedure stem cell, which produce sperm after puberty, are collected from the boys’ testes to be frozen and stored. In the future when the patient has matured and wishes to use the frozen tissue, some of it may be re-implanted or other options will be explored with the medical team.
Testicular tissue freezing is relatively new to the UK.