Results indicated that a woman between the ages of 35 and 37 with 18 eggs frozen has approximately a 70 percent chance of having one child.
Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) October 21, 2015
Shady Grove Fertility, a recognized leader in infertility research and treatment announced today the results of a unique study analyzing fresh and frozen egg cycles and their outcomes on pregnancy. The 128 Autologous Post-Vitrification Oocyte Thaw Cycles: Warming, Embryonic, Development and Pregnancy Outcomes study was presented by Joseph Doyle. M.D., and colleagues on Wednesday, October 21, 2015, during the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
The technology that allows patients to preserve eggs or embryos is not new. However, in the past, pregnancy rates from eggs and embryos frozen using older technologies were inferior to those from fresh eggs and embryos. Poorer outcomes were due largely to damage caused by ice crystals formed during the slow-freeze cryopreservation process. Vitrification, a fast-freeze technology, was introduced in 2009, and when used by laboratories expert in the technique, vitrification essentially eliminates the formation of ice crystals and results in improved success rates from vitrified eggs and embryos.
This new study evaluated success from eggs that women opted to have vitrified for future use. With 128 autologous (non-donor) cycles analyzed, this constituted one of the largest studies of its kind. Researchers evaluated success from vitrified eggs among three patient groups: women delaying childbearing who wanted to preserve the possibility of having children from their own eggs at a later date; patients desiring limited insemination of eggs to reduce the number of embryos formed and; patients with an unexpected lack of sperm at egg retrieval.
The study showed that outcomes from autologous vitrified eggs were as good as those obtained by women of the same age who used fresh eggs. Specifically, the rates of fertilization, implantation, pregnancy, and birth were all as high among women who used vitrified eggs as the rates of women who used fresh eggs. Armed with this information, women interested in or in need of egg freezing, couples who need to freeze unexpectedly, as well as those who freeze intentionally to limit the number of embryos formed can be assured that the chances of success are not impaired by using frozen eggs.
“The vitrification technology that exists today is giving patients more choices. With this technology and the accumulating outcomes, our patients now have more security knowing their chances of success down the road,” said Joseph Doyle, M.D., reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility.
In addition to showing promising pregnancy rates with frozen eggs, the study also established a correlation between maternal age at the point of egg freezing, the number of eggs frozen, and the number of pregnancies that could result. Previously, physicians used generalizations, but now patients have access to real data that enables them to make more informed decisions to determine whether they need additional treatment cycles to increase the number of eggs they have frozen. Results indicated that a woman between the ages of 35 and 37 with 18 eggs frozen has approximately a 70 percent chance of having one child, a 40 percent chance of having two children, and a 15 percent chance of having three children. Based on this data, if a woman wants to increase her odds of having more than one child, she may consider an additional egg freezing cycle to increase the number of frozen eggs and statistically increase the probability of having more children.
About Shady Grove Fertility
Shady Grove Fertility is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence offering patients individualized care, innovative financial options, and pregnancy rates among the highest of all national centers. Since 1991, more than 37,000 babies have been born to patients from all 50 states and over 35 countries around the world. Shady Grove Fertility physicians actively train residents and reproductive endocrine fellows and invest in continuous clinical research and education to advance the field of reproductive medicine through numerous academic appointments and partnerships with Georgetown Medical School, Walter Reed, and the National Institutes of Health. Today, 34 reproductive endocrinologists, urologists, Ph.D. scientists, geneticists, and more than 600 highly specialized Shady Grove Fertility staff care for patients in 18 full-service offices, and six satellite sites throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. For more information, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.