According to OB-GYN Montgomery County Dr. Rania Ibrahim, for women dealing with a ticking biological clock, the fertility procedure that’s most likely to make a difference is egg freezing. For years, when the procedure was experimental, doctors would extract eggs, fertilize them with sperm, and freeze the embryo with a fair chance of success.
But the freezing process of an egg alone proved to be more difficult, due to the fact that the egg is mostly water, and when frozen, damage to the genetic code can occur during freezing or thawing. A more recent method of egg freezing – which is a rapid cooling process known as vitrification – provided a solution. Currently, over 2,000 healthy babies have been born as a result of egg freezing.
This is a dramatic change for women as it allows patients to save eggs and protect their fertility without having to worry about a sperm donor, or decide whether they want to commit to having children with their current partner.
Your OB-GYN Montgomery County advises that if a woman is going to freeze eggs, she’ll have a greater chance of securing more healthy eggs if she does it before reaching the age of 35.
Freezing of embryos, is turning out to be an effective procedure for ensuring a successful pregnancy in women who go through standard in vitro fertilization each year. For a pregnancy to succeed, the lining of the uterus must be the proper thickness when the embryo is implanted.
When a woman has recently gone through IVF and has high doses of hormones within her body, her uterus typically isn’t as responsive.
Your OB-GYN Montgomery County reports that many women are going through an IVF cycle, producing embryos, freezing them, and then returning later to have the embryo implanted at a time when their hormones are at a more normal level. Results from this procedure suggest that pregnancy conclusions may be better after these frozen transfers.
But what hasn’t changed and probably never will is the fact that a woman’s fertility diminishes as she ages, especially after the age of 30. Women are born with a limited amount of eggs, and no technology has been found to aid in regenerating new ones.
If you are dealing with infertility or would like more information regarding egg freezing, contact the office of OB-GYN Montgomery County Dr. Rania Ibrahim today to schedule a confidential consultation.