Embryo freezing and storage
Freeze and store your embryos until you’re ready to use them.
During IVF treatment we develop more embryos that can be used in a single transfer. If you’d like us to we can freeze your embyros in case you need another round of treatment, or if you’d like to grow your family in the future.
Could freezing my embryos be right for me?
Embryo freezing is routine at CARE, and with the vitrification technique frozen embryos can get great results. You'll not know whether you have embryos available for freezing until you're well into your treatment cycle, but we'll discuss the possibility with you before you start treatment.
You might freeze your embryos because:
- You’re having IVF treatment and still have some viable embryos left after transfer
- You’re having IVF treatment, but we’ve advised against a fresh transfer at that time
- You’re not ready to have a baby just yet but want to preserve your fertility.
Everyone’s different, and we’ll go through all aspects of your treatment to help decide exactly what’s right for you.
What does embryo freezing involve?
When you’re going through IVF treatment, once we’ve fertilised your eggs we’ll talk to you regularly about how your embryos are developing, and we’ll let you know whether there will be any of the right quality left for freezing. If there are, and you’d like us to store them for you, we’ll place them in individual straws and then in a special solution to protect them in storage. Finally, we’ll freeze them in liquid nitrogen.
When you’re ready to use your embryos we’ll remove an embryo from storage and carefully warm it. Then, if it’s good enough quality, we’ll prepare it for transfer. We’ll aim to place the embryo into the womb of you or your partner at the right time of the cycle, and timing will depend on the stage of the embryos, i.e whether they’re fertilised eggs, day three embryos or blastocysts.
To find out more about embryo freezing, talk to your local clinic or contact us.