Ultimately, the sponsor and Choice Moms parted ways because egg freezing was an option more suited for younger women whose eggs were typically stronger. And to my way of thinking, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s might better spend that money -- to potentially delay childbearing until her career or a relationship is in shape -- by starting to set foot on the Choice Mom path and NOT delay.

Since then, however, I have realized that women do want to know all the options. And, in fact, many coming to ChoiceMoms.org these days ARE in fact in their late 20s and earliest 30s.

So thanks to Choice Mom-friendly Laurel Fertility Care (San Francisco), here is some detail about the egg freezing process:

What is vitrification, or egg freezing?
Vitrification is the latest method for freezing unfertilized eggs to preserve fertility options for hopeful mothers. "This cutting edge practice is still fairly new and not many programs are doing it," commented Laurel Fertility Care Lab Director Dr. Marlane Angle, PhD. "However, survival rates using vitrification are much higher for eggs and embryos when compared to previous freezing methods like slow cooling."

Why Choose Vitrification?
"It's the technology of the future," commented Dr. Angle. "People, especially women, need this and are asking for it. We were originally used fertility preservation for women undergoing cancer treatment. These women often experience fertility challenges following radiation or chemotherapy. If these women preserve their fertility before cancer treatment, they have a much better chance of conception down the road"

Even if a woman isn’t going through a life threatening process like chemotherapy, vitrification is still a great option. "Women who are really invested in their careers, are nervous that they might not find that right person, or feel like the clock is ticking for motherhood are prime candidates," observed Dr. Angle. "Women have a much better chance of getting pregnant at age 25 versus age 35, and age 35 versus age 40. Preserving your fertility at an early age will provide options ahead."

A group that often requests egg vitrification includes patients for whom there is no sperm available, whether this means that a male partner is unable to produce sperm on the day that it is required or because the patient has no male partner. Freezing women’s eggs allows time and flexibility to get sperm. Timing no longer adds stress. "Vitrification finally provides people with options to safely preserve parenthood until the time is right." remarked Dr. Angle, "Becoming proactive now will improve options for parents and the lives of their future children."

Slow cooling vs. Vitrification
Until recently, options for preserving fertility were limited to slow cooling. Though this process works well for preserving sperm, damaging ice crystals can form inside larger cells, such as eggs. The ice crystals can physically damage the egg during the thawing process. The minimal success rates of slow cooling have pushed scientists like Dr. Angle to use vitrification. "Vitrification reduces the formation of ice crystals found in slow cooling. Rapidly dropping the temperatures inside of eggs within milliseconds results in cooling the egg to preserve it and by-passes the time required for the formation of ice." described Dr. Angle, "The very rapid
cooling allows us to freeze the egg in its current state."

History of Cryopreservation
The idea came from watching nature, specifically frogs and fish. Scientists questioned how Arctic fish could be swimming in and around frozen icebergs, becoming frozen themselves yet live through these conditions. This led to the discovery of cryoprotection, the ability to drop body temperatures quickly enough to preserve the current status. As scientists researched further, they mimicked cryoprotection by developing a slow cooling freezing process. This led to the first successful slow cooling cryopreservation of mice embryos in 1972.(1) Then in 1983, the first human pregnancy was reported after using slow cooling cryopreservation.(2) However, the pregnancy was terminated due to complications during the egg’s development. During this time, researchers Greg Fahy and William Rall reported a new way of cryopreservation, vitrification.(3) Since Fahy and Rall’s discovery of vitrification, multiple studies have shown that survival rates double using vitrification versus slow cooling have doubled.(4)

For more information on vitrification and how it can help preserve your parenting options, please call Laurel
Fertility Care at 415.673.9199 or email info@laurelfertility.com

NOTE FROM MIKKI: Also listen to this Choice Chat podcast with a single woman who pursued this option, and wrote a book about the experience.

More Resources and Additional Reading
MyOncofertility: Fertility education for chemotherapy and radiation recipients
American Society of Reproductive Medicine: Cryopreservation and Storage
Vitrification vs. slow cooling protocol using embryos cryopreserved in the 5th or 6th day after oocyte retrieval and IVF outcomes. 2010 Jan 1;48(1):84-8

Footnotes
1 -- Whittingham DG, Leibo SP, Mazur P. Survival of mouse embryos frozen to -196 degrees and -269 degrees C. Science. 1972;178:411-414.
2 -- Trounson A, Mohr L. Human pregnancy following cryopreservation, thawing and transfer of an eight-cell embryo. Nature.
1983;305:707-709
3 -- Rall WF, Fahy GM. Ice-free cryopreservation of mouse embryos at -196 degrees C by vitrification. Nature. 1985;313: 573-575
4 -- Ku? P, Kuczy?ska A, Stankiewicz B, Sieczy?ski P, Matysiak J, Kuczy?ski W.Vitrification vs. slow cooling protocol using embryos
cryopreserved in the 5th or6th day after oocyte retrieval and IVF outcomes. Folia Histochem Cytobiol. 2010 Jan 1;48(1):84-8. PubMed PMID: 20529821.