FAQs

AMH levels decrease as you age and give an indication of how well you might respond to ovarian stimulation, thus helping to determine the optimal dose of FSH in a stimulation cycle.

AMH does not tell us how fertile you are. You can still ovulate normally and release healthy eggs even though the AMH is low, however, if the AMH level is declining rapidly this suggests that you are heading for a relatively early menopause.

Once the egg is fertilised by the sperm the genetic material is complete and the single cell resulting then begins a process of division and differentiation, becoming a blastocyst after around 5 days. All of the energy and programming for this process is contained in the egg cell. As eggs age the quality tends to deteriorate, either because the egg’s age, or due to environmental influences to which they are exposed during your lifetime. The best quality eggs tend to be released earlier than poorer quality eggs.

Many people tend to interpret chromosomal abnormality as a marker of egg quality

Published data relating to pregnancy rates using frozen-thawed eggs do not easily distinguish between egg frozen by the slow freeze method compared with vitrification.

When women freeze their eggs to preserve their fertility, they typically wait several years before using them. As a result, there are not yet many high-quality studies reporting large-scale results.

As such they are more susceptible to vitamin and mineral deficiencies than many other cells. There have been a number of studies suggesting benefits to fertility from supplementing your diet with some vitamins and minerals. More information can be found in our wellness programme for information.

Once the water has been replaced, the eggs are flash frozen to -273C in liquid nitrogen, a process called vitrification.

This is a relatively recent development in freezing technique and appears to be more effective than slow freezing which was used previously because it reduces the chance of damage to the egg, leading to higher rates of egg survival after freezing and thawing and better overall egg freezing success rates.

using the vitrification and slow freezing techniques. At Ice Fertility, our focus is on treating women in this age group, as we want to ensure the procedure is successful and delivers the best results. Our fertility calculator uses published data from a number of different studies to try to give you an indication of the number of eggs you should freeze in order to give yourself an 80% chance of having a child if you need to use the eggs at some time in the future.

Our unique fertility calculator will be able to give you a good indication of the likely number of eggs we will be able to retrieve per cycle, and how many eggs you need to have an 80% chance of having at least one child if you need to use the eggs in the future.

It is possible to do cycles back to back, however, we recommend a month off between each cycle.

The hormone injections allow more of these eggs to reach maximum maturity and make them available for collection. You do not lose any more eggs than you would do in a normal cycle. For similar reasons, being on the pill does not save your eggs or prolong your fertility.

You should therefore avoid high impact activities such as running and contact sports over the last few days of stimulation and a few days after egg collection. The high oestrogen levels may make you feel a little hormonal. This can cause some breast tenderness, fluid retention and make you emotional.

Additionally, the injection site could become sore, red, or slightly bruised. If this happens inject the hormones in a different part of your body, until it settles.

The whole process is no more invasive than having a blood sample drawn from your arm and usually takes no more than 15 minutes. However, as there are important structures close by, it is important you keep very still during the procedure and we recommend mild sedation whilst it is performed. For this reason, you will need to be escorted home after the procedure,
You’ll know the results of the egg retrieval process right away.
Immediately after the egg retrieval, the embryologist, an expert in the science of oocyte cryopreservation will rinse, incubate, and prep your eggs for freezing in the lab.

This takes a little longer to resolve and may feel like an internal bruising. You should rest if this happens since movement will make the pain worse.

If you experience any excessive bleeding or discomfort following the operation, contact the clinic which carried out the procedure immediately.

This likely to be heavier than usual due to the stimulation. If you have a regular period, you can expect to get your next period at the same time as your normal cycle – i.e. 28-30 days after the withdrawal bleed following stimulation.

The health or viability of frozen eggs will not decrease over time. However, the legal time limit for egg storage in the UK is 10 years. There is a strong lobby to extend this timeframe as more people are starting to freeze their eggs at a younger age.

It is helpful at this point, to consider how long you think you want to keep your eggs frozen and then we can help you review your long-term egg freezing storage options.

If you want to have the option to donate your eggs to a third-party additional blood tests will be required at the start of the process. Our consultants will provide more information on this at the registration phase.