embryo freezing in spain
The aim of every IVF treatment is to achieve pregnancy in the quickest and most comfortable way possible for our patients. Therefore, when a treatment begins, the goal is the transfer of one or two top-quality embryos into the uterus of the recipient mother.
In some cases, at the embryo transfer stage, the patient has a large number of good quality embryos available. It is not possible to transfer all of them due to the risk of multiple pregnancies.
These viable embryos that are not used for the transfer are frozen in order to be used at a later date. They can be used if the couple decides to try for another child or if subsequent attempts with fresh embryos fail.
The prognosis of embryo freezing over the past few years has drastically improved so much so that we have introduced a new technique, vitrification, to our IVF programme. Vitrification optimises the success of embryo freezing.
Here are some important facts relating to embryo freezing:
- Embryo freezing is not always carried out in every IVF cycle. In most treatments soft stimulation is used in order to obtain an adequate number of eggs causing minimum discomfort to the patients. In this case, spare embryos are not generated.
- Not all embryos are viable for freezing. Although there may be several embryos in the laboratory, the embryologist can see which of them would not survive the freezing and defrosting process. These embryos are not frozen. We only freeze embryos where there is a reasonable possibility of survival after the defrosting process.
- Some frozen embryos unfortunately do not survive the defrosting process. This means that even though we start a treatment, it does not necessarily mean that we will eventually have embryos to transfer to the uterus.
- Pregnancy rates obtained using frozen embryos are slightly lower than the ones achieved using fresh embryos.
- The treatment that the patient needs to undergo in order to carry out a frozen embryo transfer is quick, simple and comfortable. No injections are required (only patches and vaginal pessaries). It takes no longer than two weeks and there is no need for frequent monitoring (usually no blood tests are required and normally no more than one ultrasound scan is necessary).
- Pregnancies following this treatment proceed normally. The occurrence of complications is no higher than in any other kind of treatment or natural pregnancy. There is no link associated with this treatment to malformations and/or the physical and intellectual development of the child.
Frozen embryos are stored for periods of two years. If the couple decides to end storage, they have four options: use the embryos themselves for a further IVF treatment, donate the embryos to another couple, donate the embryos to scientific research or destroy them.
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