Preservation of Fertility
Preservation of Female Fertility
Egg Vitrification makes it possible for women to freeze eggs to be fertilised in the future, whether for social/personal or medical reasons. For women with cancer, this treatment is the best way to preserve their fertility prior to undergoing cancer treatment. The age and quality of the eggs will always be the same as when they were originally frozen.
Vitrification is an ultra rapid freezing procedure during which the eggs are exposed to a sudden drop in temperature from 23ºC to minus 196ºC. The complete process begins with hormone stimulation to retrieve eggs from the female’s ovaries for the purpose of vitrifying them in the laboratory and keeping them stored in an authorised bank with the guarantees of confidentiality, security and proper identification.
What is it?
When is it indicated?
Women with cancer prior to undergoing chemotherapy, radiation therapy or ovary removal surgery.
Healthy women who wish to postpone motherhood for personal reasons.
Women undergoing IVF who don’t want to freeze extra embryos but prefer to freeze their eggs and use them at a later point in time.
Procedure
The procedure to freeze eggs is very similar to the procedure for In Vitro Fertilisation treatment. The only difference is that, following retrieval from the ovaries, the eggs will not be fertilised but rather frozen and put into storage.
The eggs will remain stored in appropriate banks with liquid nitrogen with the guarantees of confidentiality, security and proper identification indefinitely until the patient decides she wants to use them.
Preservation of Male Fertility
Sperm freezing is the technique used for the preservation of male fertility. It involves cryopreserving one or more sperm samples in liquid nitrogen so that they can be used in future fertility treatments.
The sample can be stored indefinitely and will still be apt for fertilisation. In order for this to be possible, sperm are protected with a cryoprotector medium that keeps the frozen samples preserved in our fertility clinic over time.
When is it indicated?
Males with cancer who will be undergoing treatment which could negatively impact their fertility.
Males who are going to undergo a vasectomy or other surgeries that affect fertility.
Males with very low sperm count who have been advised to accumulate sperm from several ejaculations.
Procedure
To preserve male fertility the patient will provide a sperm sample to be analysed and frozen. Freezing and thawing sperm reduces the percentage of motile spermatozoids between ten and fifty percent. For this reason we may request additional samples.
The samples will remain stored in a sperm bank and we fully guarantee confidentiality, security and proper identification indefinitely until the patient decides he wants to use them. The quality of those spermatozoids which have preserved their motility will not decline regardless of the amount of time the samples are in storage.
More info
Complete the form or call us at (+34) 952 122 565.
