Egg Freezing
Only you can decide when you’re ready to start a family – with Egg freezing you can wait until the time is right. By freezing your eggs with Beacon CARE Fertility you can preserve your fertility for the future, giving you the flexibility you need to wait for the right time
Why freeze your eggs?
Fertility is scientifically proven to be age dependent and since it is the age of a woman’s eggs which determines her fertility, the eggs of a 30 year old woman are much more likely to lead to successful conception than those of a 40 year old. Freezing your eggs at an early reproductive age can help to preserve your fertility and maximise your chances of a future pregnancy if you should experience fertility problems in the future.
A significant number of cancer cases occur in people of reproductive age and cancer treatments can harm your fertility. The effects can be temporary or permanent depending on factors such as the type of cancer , the treatment received and your age at the time of treatment. These treatments do not have to end the hopes of having a family though. Women with cancer may have the option to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs.
When should I freeze my eggs?
You should ideally freeze your eggs before you’re 36. Around 36 the quality of your eggs will begin to decline. Poor egg quality can lead to problems conceiving, miscarriage or genetic conditions so by freezing your eggs when you’re younger, you have the best possible chance of starting or growing your family.
What Are The Steps Involved?
The egg freezing process can be split into five stages.
1. We perform a scan and blood work to personalise a protocol that will be discussed during your Consultation.
2. You begin by taking medication which encourages your ovaries to produce eggs.
3. During this time you’ll make a few short visits to the clinic to monitor your response.
4. Then we’ll collect your eggs in a short procedure under mild sedation or local anaesthetic.
5. Once we have collected your eggs we will then freeze and safely store them using an Open Vitrification Freezing Process.
Introducing Egg Freezing AI
Always at the forefront of science and innovation, we are the first Fertility Clinic in Ireland to offer Egg Freezing with Artificial Intelligence (powered by Violet).
What Exactly is Egg Freezing AI? It is a non-invasive, image analysis tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help to assess and predict the quality of your eggs and their chances of achieving certain milestones in the future (such as a live birth). We are the first clinic in Ireland to offer this Egg Freezing AI.
What Type Of Predictions Does It Make? You receive a Personalised Report of the eggs you freeze that predicts their probability of achieving a blastocyst embryo and a live birth in the future. The Personalised Report will also provide images of your eggs.
How Exactly Does The Egg Freezing AI Work? The A.I. tool is based on thousands of egg images and is able to detect signals and patterns within the egg that the human eye can’t see.
How Effective Is The Egg Freezing AI Tool? Egg Freezing AI was able to outperform Senior Embryologists by more than 20% at predicting whether an egg was of high enough quality to reach a blastocyst stage.
How Can My Personalised AI Assessment Report Assist Me? With your Assessment Report, our clinic team can give you more personalised feedback on the quality of your eggs and your chances of achieving a live birth with the eggs.
This feedback can empower our patients to make more informed decisions about their family planning.
Egg Freezing AI is an optional enhancement to our Egg Freezing Program. Please note that due to the nature of fertilisation and embryo development, no guarantees can be made from the predictions in your report. Your Consultant will be happy to discuss if A.I. is recommended for you.
How are eggs frozen?
Did you know that an egg is the largest cell in the human body? This means we need a special technique to freeze effectively. We use the open vitrification technique to freeze eggs. Vitrification literally means ‘turning to glass’. The eggs are first dehydrated to remove as much water as possible. Then, after being bathed in a protective solution, they are plunged rapidly into liquid nitrogen at almost -200°C. This step is performed so quickly that prevents ice formation and results in a glass-like state.
Around 90-95% of eggs undergoing this super-fast freezing technique survive the freeze-thaw process and a high proportion of these are capable of undergoing ICSI (where a sperm is injected in to the egg to fertilise)
Read the Blog Post by Alison Campbell, Director of Embryology >>
Why Choose Beacon CARE Fertility for Egg Freezing?
The technology, expertise and experience of our Lab Team and Doctors cannot be overstated. We are also the first and only Clinic in Ireland to offer the new Egg Freezing A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) technology to assist with your family planning.
In addition, when you decide to transfer your eggs via IVF, you will have access to our world renowned embryo selection technology to select the most viable embryo for transfer. Our doctors will also devise a tailored treatment plan specifically for you. All of these components will maximise your chance of having a successful pregnancy.
Our track record is reflected in the exceptional success rates we achieve for our patients and there have been 60,000 CARE babies born to date.
A Unique Egg Freezing and Storage package
What is EGGsafe?
With EGGsafe we aim to maximise your chances of a successful future pregnancy by freezing a total of 20 eggs gathered over up to four egg collections, which can be spread over several months.
The whole EGGsafe package includes all egg collections, preparation and freezing of your eggs, and storage.
Is EGGsafe suitable for me?
- Be 36 or under
- Have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 or less
- Have an Antral Follicle Count (AFC) of over 14
By meeting these criteria, we’ll be able to offer you EGGsafe knowing that you have a realistic chance of producing enough eggs for storage
