For many women, fertility issues can lead to complex, stressful treatments with no guarantee for a positive result. Now, Washington University School of Medicine has found a way to make one of those fertility treatments, freezing eggs, more promising.
Freezing eggs is a common procedure for women diagnosed with cancer who want to stay fertile before undergoing chemotherapy or radiation, women who would rather freeze eggs instead of embryos during in vitro fertilization, or women in their 20s and 30s who want to put off having children for personal or financial reasons.
The current method to freeze eggs often causes ice crystals in the eggs, which sometimes destroys the egg's structure, making it impossible to create an embryo. With the new method, eggs are frozen so fast that ice crystals don't have time to form and the egg stays intact.
“It’s always been easier to freeze and thaw embryos,” says Susan Lanzendorf, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “But this new technology has improved frozen eggs’ viability and increased pregnancy rates in women choosing this option.”
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