CRYOPRESERVATION OF UNFERTILIZED OOCYTES

Cryopreservation of unfertilized oocytes describes a procedure that serves as a method of fertility reserve.

The fact that women only have a certain period of time to have children is caused in that the fertilization ability of the egg cells steadily decreases after the age of 30. From the age of 38, this process increases even more rapidly. Realizing the desire to have children up to this age is sometimes not possible for personal reasons, which often results in the desire for temporal independence.

The cryopreservation of unfertilized oocytes is a possibility to freeze the oocytes before they lose their quality for later use.

In this procedure, the unfertilized egg cells are stored in liquid nitrogen at -196°C. Due to the process of cryopreservation and therefore the extremely low temperatures, no metabolism processes can take place in the egg cell. For this reason, the oocytes remain in the same condition as when they were collected. In addition, a pregnancy can also be realized in this way if the ovaries or their function are lost, such as after chemotherapy, or if the menopause occurs very early.