Leading Destination for Fertility Treatment
The leading destination for fertility treatments and stress-free travel offers hope to patients around the world. With the numerous advancements in in vitro fertilization (IVF), cryopreservation techniques have allowed ‘preserving’ eggs, embryos, and sperm a well-established technology at the Adalia Healthcare in Cuprus Cyprus.
Oocyte (Egg) Cryopreservation began in 1986, however the application of the method only began in recent years. It is the process whereby a woman’s eggs are extracted, frozen and stored.
They can then be used at a later stage when to become pregnant where they are then thawed and fertilized in preparation for an embryo transfer.
Benefits of Egg Cryopreservation
Women who choose to freeze their eggs do so for a number of reasons. These include:
- To avoid the risk of premature ovarian failure due to; Chemotherapy, Endometriosis, Ovarian surgery, Genetic predisposition e.g. women with a family history of early menopause
- Allow flexibility for the IVF process due to; failure to produce semen, risk of ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome (OHSS)
- Family Planning; to preserve their future ability to have children either because they do not yet have a partner, for the purpose of education or career or for other personal or medical reasons
- Oocyte donation
The egg retrieval process for oocyte cryopreservation is the same as for IVF. Hormone injections are administered to stimulate the ovaries and a ovulation trigger injection is used to stimulate the final maturation of eggs in the ovaries. Approximately 34-36 hours later the eggs are collected under transvaginal ultrasound guidance and sedation. The eggs are then immediately frozen.
The survival rate of the oocytes after thawing is 69-100% depending on the quality — and pregnancy rates are nearly 23-35%. These rates are similar to those of cryopreserved embryos.
Embryo Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation allows embryos to be preserved for up to 5 years, therefore if an IVF attempt is unsuccessful, the preserved embyros can be used in a future cycle. In cases where the IVF cycle was successful, the remaining cryopreserved embryos can be used at a later date when the decision has been made to have more children.
Embryos cryopreserved for 13 years have been successfully thawed and clinical pregnancy has been successful with embryo preserved for 9 years. Healthy babies have been born after 5 years cryopreservation.
The Process of Embryo Cryopreservation
The embryos are carefully frozen and stored after the IVF process. The embryos are preserved in liquid nitrogen and are not impaired by the freezing process since they are protected by the addition of cryoprotectant substances that prevents the formation of harmful salt and crystals. The procedure of cryopreservation takes a few hours, whereas the thawing process only takes 30-40 minutes for the embryos to be ready for transfer.
The embryo survival rate after thawing depends on the quality of the embryos before freezing. Embryos frozen at the 2 pro-nucleate (2 PN) stage have a higher chance of survival to those frozen at a late stage. Blastocyst stage embryos (5 days) form a special category and are in need of extra care in cryopreservation to avoid any damage. Newly developed methods however, allow for better survival rates for embryos and increased pregnancy rates resulting in healthy babies. Embryos graded higher before freezing tend to be more resilient to freezing and thawing. Embryos are not frozen unless they are of a suıtable quality — as we are here to help you build a family and not to waste your time and money.
After thawing, the embryos are evaluated. Some will have no surviving cells and these embryos are called “atretic”. Others will have partial survivors with partial cell damage and a large numbers of embryos fall into this category. Though pregnancy rates do depend on the extent of the damage these embryos are still capable of resulting in a live birth and often recover. The very best quality embryos are those that survive with 100% of their cells in tact.
The success rates for frozen embryo transfers are typically lower than fresh embryo transfers — as embryos evaluated to be of the highest quality in the batch are usually transferred fresh. Also, as noted, the embryos may have some cell damage after the thawing process.
Sperm Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation in liquid nitrogen helps spermatozoa to keep their activity for a long time and enables the use of the sperm for various reproduction techniques including IUI, IVF, and ICSI. These tremendous developments in the field of assisted reproduction have helped many men suffering from cancer or other diseases which may lead to infertility — to the wonderful addition of their own children.
A careful cryopreserved sperm or testicular tissue remains viable for an indefinite period of time (circa 20 years) after which they can be thawed and used for IUI or other methods. Patients who decide to freeze their sperm should abstain from any sexual activity for 2-3 days before giving a sample and they should have completed screening for HIV, Hepatitis B, C and VDRL at least 30 days prior to the day they give the sample.
The sperm is collected by masturbation in a sterilised cup in our premises. Analysis and preparation then follows according to special protocols and the sample is then placed ın liquid nitrogen for cryopreservation. During the entire period of its cryopreservation, the sperm belongs to the patient who provided it. Ada IVF is responsible for its care and proper preservation. Patients should provide at least two sperm samples between 48 – 72 hours to ensure a satisfactory number of spermatozoa for future use.
Advantages of Sperm Cryopreservation
- The possibility of pregnancy in the future
- The preservation of presently healthy sperm for future use when it may be less satisfactory or lack spermatozoa
- In case future surgery, X-ray therapy, chemotherapy, or other treatments are necessary that may influence the fertilising capacity of the sperm
- The use of the cryopreserved sample (for IUI or IVF) when a fresh sample is not achievable / available
There is the uncertainty of whether the cryopreserved sperm will lead to pregnancy once thawed. Pregnancy rates with the use of cryopreserved sperm are slightly lower than those using fresh sperm as several characteristics of the spermatozoa such as motility and vitality can be influenced.
Testicular Tissue Cryopreservation
In cases of azoospermia, a testicular tissue biopsy is performed in order to verify the presence of spermatozoa or the possibility of a malignancy and then to retrieve any spermatozoa present.
Before the biopsy, FSH and inhibit levels are checked to evaluate the state of the vas deferens. If the levels are high, normally three tissue specimens are taken from each testicle which are then placed in special tubes and preserved in liquid nitrogen (-196oC) and remain there until used.
For more information regarding any of the programs at our IVF center in Northen Cyprus , please feel free to contact to info@adalia.com.tr +90 532 5411451
