During IVF cycle, if there are surplus embryos, we freeze those additional embryos for future use. On occasions, all embryos are electively frozen ( freeze all) due to medical reasons. If patients are at risk of developing ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, electively freezing embryos during IVF cycle is a common practice.
Improvements
Improvements in the freezing of embryos, including the vitrification process, have made frozen embryo transfers more common.
Benefits and Risks
Frozen embryo transfer, has several benefits, including:
- Permits the uterus environment to return to normal after IVF medication, providing natural embryo implantation conditions.
- Reduces the pregnancy risks of fresh embryo transfer IVF cycles, such as preterm labor, preeclampsia and low birth weight.
- Allows for genetic screening, greatly increasing the chances of successful pregnancy and healthy birth. Genetic screening of embryos is not currently available at Oasis Fertility Centre.
- Reduces or removes the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) during the transfer cycle, which is a risk during fresh-cycle embryo transfers.
- Is less expensive for multiple transfers than repeated fresh IVF cycles.
- During embryo freezing or thawing, there is also a slight risk that an embryo will be damaged and need to be discarded.
Frozen embryo transfer is done in either natural cycle or medicated cycle.
