EMBRYO FREEZING

The goal of every In Vitro Fertilization treatment is to achieve the maximum probability of pregnancy in the fastest and most comfortable way possible. Therefore, when we start treatment, the aim is to transfer just one or two top-quality embryos to the uterus.

In some cases, when the embryo transfer stage arrives, we have a large number of good quality embryos in the laboratory. Naturally however these cannot all be transferred to the uterus because of the risk of multiple pregnancies.

These “spare” embryos are frozen, and can be used at a later stage, should the couple decide to have another child to complete their family, or if the first attempt with “fresh” embryos is not successful.

Over the past few years we have greatly improved the prognosis of the embryo freezing process and we are currently adapting a new technique called “vitrification” to our In Vitro Fertilization programme. This technique optimises the results with frozen embryos.

It has certain special characteristics:

  • Embryo freezing is not carried out in every In Vitro Fertilization cycle. Often light stimulation is used to obtain an adequate number of eggs whilst causing minimum discomfort to the patient. In this case, spare embryos are not generated.
  • Not all the embryos are sufficiently viable to be frozen. Therefore, although several eggs may have been fertilized giving us several spare embryos in the laboratory, we can predict that some embryos will not survive the freezing/unfreezing processes, and therefore these will not be frozen. We can only freeze embryos in those cases where there is a reasonable possibility that they will survive the process.
  • Some of the embryos that we freeze do not survive the unfreezing process, so the fact that we start treatment does not necessarily mean that we will eventually transfer embryos to the uterus.
  • The number of successful pregnancies following the transfer of frozen embryos is slightly lower than the number of successful pregnancies following the transfer of fresh embryos.
  • The treatment that the patient must undergo in order to carry out the transfer of frozen embryos is short, simple and comfortable. No injections are necessary (only vaginal patches and compresses are used), the treatment takes no longer than two weeks, and no frequent tests are required (usually no blood test and no more than one ultrasound scan).
  • Pregnancies resulting from this kind of treatment occur normally. The possibility of complication is no higher than in any other kind of treatment or than in natural pregnancies. The treatment is not linked to malformations and the physical and intellectual development of the child is also comparable to natural pregnancies.

The frozen embryos are kept for the extendable period of one year. As soon as this period ends and the embryos are no longer required, the couple may decide whether the embryos are destroyed, donated for the purposes of research, or donated to other couples with reproductive problems who would like to adopt them.

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