Cryopreservation of unfertilized eggs

Although fertilized eggs have been cryopreserved at various stages of development for the past 20 years and have consistently been able to give rise to viable pregnancies, freezing unfertilized eggs has proved to be largely unsuccessful until recently. New developments in techniques of cryopreservation have been reported by only in a handful of laboratories throughout the world. In order to make this technology in available to patients in the New York area, Dr. Kantilal Thanki has traveled to the University of Bologna in Italy to study the methodology developed by Dr. Eleonora Porcu, whose group has produced the highest rate of live births using unfertilized cryopreserved eggs. Dr. Thanki, the director of embryology laboratory at Advanced Fertility Services for the past 13 years has had over 20 years experience in the cryopreservation of gametes.

Patients who would benefit from the cryopreservation of the unfertilized eggs fall into two major categories. The first are those unfortunate young people who are diagnosed with malignant diseases and who require either chemotherapy or radiation therapy which will ultimately destroy their supply of eggs and render them irreversible infertile. The second group is women who wish to preserve their eggs in order to preserve their fecundity for the future. These cryopreserved oocytes may then be used if the woman is unable to conceive because of an age related oocyte factor. It must be emphasized, however, that all women should try to conceive naturally and begin having their families at the youngest possible age, since fecundity does diminish dramatically with advancing maternal age.

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