Egg freezing and storage

There are all kinds of reasons why you might not be ready to start your family. However studies show that female fertility begins to decline in your 30s. Storing your eggs in your late 20s to mid 30s is the perfect back-up plan, giving you the freedom to wait until the time is right for you.

What is EGGsafe-AI?

EGGsafe-AI is an egg freezing package available exclusively at Care. EGGsafe-AI makes egg freezing and storage more simple and effective.

We use a non-invasive, image analysis of your eggs powered by Artificial Intelligence: it delivers the insights for Eggsafe-AI.

Why use Artificial Intelligence?

The AI tool is based on thousands of egg images and is able to detect signals and patterns within the egg that the human eye can’t see. The AI software was able to outperform senior embryologists by more than 20% at predicting whether an egg was of high enough quality to reach a blastocyst stage. With this assessment your clinic team can give you more personalized feedback on the quality of your eggs, including a report with images of your eggs. This empowers you to make informed decisions about your future fertility.

Can anyone choose EGGsafe-AI?

To go ahead with EGGsafe-AI you will need to

be under 36 years of age
have a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or less
have an antral follicle count (AFC) of over 14 (Find out your antral follicle count with our female IVF diagnotsic tests)

By ensuring you meet these criteria, we'll be able to offer you treatment knowing you have a realistic chance of producing enough eggs for storage to give you a high and realistic chance of having a baby when you are ready.

What does treatment with EGGsafe-AI involve?

The egg freezing process can be split into stages - stimulation, egg collection, freezing and storage.

Stimulation

During this stage you take medication that encourages your ovaries to safely produce as many eggs as possible.

Egg collection

Once you have completed your course of medication, you will come in to Care for egg collection. Usually under mild sedation or local anaesthetic, we collect the eggs from your ovaries using a needle guided by an ultrasound probe. The procedure takes around 30 minutes.

Freezing and storage

After collection, our embryologists will take photos of your eggs using AI assisted image analysis which generates a report showing the likelihood of each egg successfully fertilizing and becoming a blastocyst. All of the suitable eggs will be frozen and stored for possible future use.

If you choose EGGsafe, we'll guide you through this cycle until we've been able to freeze 20 eggs in up to 4 cycles.

What happens when I want to use my eggs?

When you are ready to start your family, you can use your frozen eggs in IVF treatment. A treatment plan will be devised for you, and your eggs thawed in the embryology lab, using special warming solutions. They are then fertilised with sperm (either your partner’s or donor sperm) to create embryos.

At the appropriate time, your embryos will be transferred to your uterus in a straightforward non-surgical procedure. Your doctor will use ultrasound guidance to insert a soft catheter through the cervix and into the uterus. The embryo or embryos pass through the catheter and into your uterus, where hopefully, one will implant.

After a period of approximately 2 weeks you will take a pregnancy test.

How long can my eggs be stored for?

The standard storage period for eggs is 10 years, but there may be circumstances in which your eggs can be stored for longer (e.g. for those women at risk of becoming prematurely infertile due to medical reasons).

How successful is egg freezing?

Over 85% of eggs undergoing the vitrification technique survive the freeze-thaw process, and many of these can be used in treatment. Results, as with IVF, depend on a number of individual factors including the quality of the frozen eggs. That's partly why we recommend freezing 20 eggs. This number has been calculated based on our experience and worldwide data. We consider that this will give a high and realistic chance of having a baby in the future, when you are ready.