Any additional healthy embryos from the IVF process can be frozen, in case more than one treatment cycle is needed. Freezing embryos, also known as cryopreservation, takes place for some 60% of all patients having IVF treatment – and frozen embryo transfers account for around 50% of all IVF births in our program.
Your fertility specialist will guide you through your options when it comes to freezing embryos, and help you decide what to do with them when your treatment comes to an end. The fertility counsellors are also available for support and advice throughout this process.
The advantages of freezing embryos
Embryo freezing provides more opportunities for a pregnancy from each hormone stimulation cycle and egg collection. Embryo (and egg) freezing also allows preservation of fertility for women who have a major risk to their fertility in situations such as ovary-damaging cancer treatment.
For example, if six normal embryos are obtained in an IVF cycle, we might suggest transferring one or two of them and freezing the other four or five. This would generally allow further embryo transfers in later cycles without the need to undergo a full stimulated IVF cycle, if pregnancy did not occur in the first cycle. If a baby is conceived in the stimulated IVF cycle, then the frozen embryos can be used subsequently to try for another pregnancy without the need for further hormone stimulation.
Current Victorian legislation allows storage of embryos for up to five years. Couples wanting to store embryos beyond this time need to authorise Melbourne IVF to continue storing their embryos.
Success rates with frozen embryos
At Melbourne IVF, about half our births, over many years, have come from the transfer of frozen and thawed embryos. Success rates depend on the age of the woman’s eggs when the embryos were frozen – and this is where our model of care really makes a difference. For example, if a 42-year-old woman uses frozen embryos, which were created at the time of her first pregnancy when she was 38, her fertility chance will be that of a 38-year-old woman, not a 42-year-old.
> Learn more about age and fertility
> Contact us for more information about freezing embryo and embryo transfer
