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Egg Freezing Treatment / Oocyte Freezing Treatment

It is the process of receiving egg maturation treatment, just as in the IVF treatment, collecting mature eggs from a female patient under anaesthesia and freezing them for later use. It is a treatment group with various egg development techniques, and choosing the appropriate methods for each patient is a factor that increases the chance of success. Therefore, all patients interested in egg freezing treatment should receive medical consultancy before planning the treatment. This will help them take faster and more accurate steps towards freezing a good number of eggs.

Egg freezing is an excellent solution that allows the female patient to stop her biological clock, and this treatment maximises the chance of having healthy babies with healthy and young eggs at an older age.

Oocyte freezing treatment involves medication requiring eggs to mature in the first stage. Then, it can only be done in an IVF centre, as mature eggs must be collected in a particular IVF operating room and stored in an embryology laboratory. Where the procedures will be performed is as important as who will perform the procedures. Egg-freezing treatment should only be performed by an infertility specialist with a diploma or IVF certificate. Only gynaecologists and obstetricians who have received this additional training and are authorised know to perform these treatments. It is both illegal and undesirable in terms of patient success for gynaecologists and obstetricians who have not received additional IVF training to perform these treatments. For this reason, the choice of the IVF doctor comes to the fore rather than the choice of the IVF centre. In this regard, both the patient's doctor's guidance and the consultancy services the consultants provide on the websites are guiding. Asst. Prof. Burcu Özbakır has conducted studies on IVF treatments in England and is the only doctor in Cyprus and Turkey with a diploma equivalent to a higher specialisation on the subject.
  • Women who are considering having children at or over the age of 35
  • Women who have had one of their ovaries removed
  • Women who have ovulation problems
  • Women whose ovarian reserve has decreased but has not yet ended
  • Patients with ovarian cancer
  • Before chemotherapy or radiotherapy for patients who will receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy due to cancer treatment
  • Before treatment for women who will undergo surgery or medication that will disrupt the structure or maturation of the egg
  • Women who have endometriosis or chocolate cysts

The treatment is a process determined by the research before the treatment. The treatment program and the egg-enhancing drugs and their doses are determined before the egg freezing treatment process starts. The egg freezing treatment stages are explained to the patients in detail, and the preliminary preparations are completed. For example, screening for some infectious diseases before starting the treatment may be necessary regarding treatment timing and management. In some cases, antibiotic use may be needed before the treatment, while in some cases, additional treatments may be given for egg development.

Egg development period: The timing of the patient's treatment depends on the menstrual cycle, and the treatments start about the menstrual cycle. Therefore, egg freezing treatment cannot be started on any day in patients with regular menstrual cycles. A short treatment protocol or a long treatment protocol can be selected according to the female patient's menstrual cycle. In the long protocol, the needle treatment that controls ovulation starts on the 21st day of the patient's menstrual period. With the next menstrual period, egg development needles (egg growth medications) are added to the treatment to ensure egg maturation. In the short protocol, egg development needles are started within the first 5 days of the menstrual period, and when the eggs begin to mature, the needle treatment that controls ovulation is added. Some of the egg development and ovulation control IVF needles are administered subcutaneously and some intramuscularly. The needles administered subcutaneously are tiny and are usually preferred in the belly or arm area, and patients can administer their injections after a short training. Since the injections that need to be administered intramuscularly are usually administered from the hip, they should be administered by medical personnel. The medications used in egg freezing treatment are not only injections; vitamins, antibiotics, and various treatments for the coagulation system can be added to the treatment depending on the patient's clinical condition.

During the treatment, the woman undergoes vaginal ultrasound several times to monitor the effects of the egg development drugs taken, to adjust the dose if necessary, and to add or remove medications if necessary. The reason for performing ultrasounds vaginally is that the measurements and images are much more accurate than ultrasounds viewed from the abdominal area. During the ultrasound, the follicles belonging to the developing eggs in the ovaries, the tiny egg cysts filled with fluid, are counted, and each is measured individually. With serial ultrasounds, the growth rates of these measured follicles are monitored, and the necessary medication adjustments are made.

In both long and short protocol treatment management, when the eggs are fully mature, an HCG-like drug called a trigger injection is applied and the eggs are collected within 34-36 hours after the injection. The timing of the egg collection process is critical because, in early collection processes, the number and quality of the eggs obtained will be worse. When it is too late, the eggs may not be collected because they will rupture. Since all the details can affect success, team harmony and success are higher when the patient shares the stages.

Egg collection: Egg collection is performed while the female patient is under light anaesthesia (sedoanalgesia), meaning that the patient is asleep and does not perceive pain, but since there is no complete anaesthesia, she wakes up immediately after the procedure and does not take the risks of general anaesthesia. The duration of the egg collection procedure depends on the patient's egg count, the infertility specialist's experience, and the general condition of the patient's ovaries, and is an average of 10-20 minutes. During this process, after the patient is asleep, the female genital area is cleaned, and the mature eggs are collected one by one by entering the abdomen through the vagina with a specific sterile needle. During this collection, the follicles containing the eggs are constantly monitored by vaginal ultrasound. As the eggs are collected, they are transferred to the embryology laboratory. The procedure is terminated after all mature eggs are collected.

Determining the quality of eggs and freezing them: After the collected eggs are rested, the cells around each egg are cleaned, and the eggs can be observed. Four types of eggs are monitored at this stage. The egg type M2 refers to eggs ready to be fertilised, and the number of these eggs is essential. The egg type called M1 consists of eggs that are not yet suitable for fertilisation but are about to complete their maturation. These eggs can sometimes turn into M2 eggs when waited. Therefore, after M1 eggs are kept for a while, the eggs that turn into M2 are also processed. The egg type called GV consists of eggs that are not suitable for fertilisation, are not fully matured, and are of no use. The egg type defined as postmature or anomaly describes eggs that are either old because they have been waiting too long or have an abnormal appearance, and these eggs are not used because they are unhealthy. After the eggs with M2 quality are put through a unique freezing process, they are frozen at -196 degrees and stored in a special freezing tank under the patient's name.

The entire treatment process is determined according to the patient's treatment protocol. The total treatment duration is between 12-16 days in patients who have applied a short protocol. Since the treatment is started before menstruation in patients who have started a long protocol, the total duration, including drug treatment, is approximately 19-23 days. Since most of our patients do not live in Cyprus, to shorten this period, only the first part of our patients' drug treatments can be done in the patient’s home country, and our doctor makes all arrangements regarding the drugs as a result of the examinations they have done where they are. After our patients' eggs mature, they come to Cyprus, and the procedural part of our treatment is completed here. In this way, our patients need to be in Cyprus for approximately 1-3 days.

In the egg freezing procedure, eggs are frozen at very low temperatures. This way, the sample can be stored for many years without damage. Eggs are kept in a special place in the egg freezing tank in advanced embryology laboratories and are reserved for the patient. This sample can only be used with the patient's permission and approval.

Eggs can be stored frozen without damage as long as the female patient is alive and mentally healthy and requests annual storage with the patient's consent. While eggs can only be stored for a certain period in many countries, eggs can be stored for as long as desired in our centre without any time constraints.

In Cyprus, all IVF treatments are protected under the laws and relevant regulations, and all patients are prepared with due attention to protective measures. For this reason, egg freezing treatment can be performed within a completely legal framework. We can legally perform the treatments of all our patients who need egg freezing in our centre in Cyprus.

Due to the law, we cannot share information on egg-freezing prices on our website. You can contact us for detailed information.

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