WHAT IS FREEZING THE EMBRYO PROCEDURE?

The fact that the egg of the women obtained from test tube baby methods, sperm cells of the man, embryos and tissues can be frozen and kept successfully this facility is of capital importance for patients and for the technological improvement of test tube baby.

Following the transfer of the embryos, obtained from the test tube baby treatment, to the candidate mother, after a mutual agreement by the couples and the doctor good quality leftover embryos can be frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen at -196º.  If the fresh embryo transfer cycle does not cause pregnancy, the frozen embryos can be defrosted and transferred to the mother candidate without hormone treatment.

The embryos are passed through a solution called cryoprotective and can be frozen by using two different techniques (slow and controlled freezing by using a programmed freezing device or vitrification method without using any device).

Because our clinic implements 5th day treatment routinely, the leftover blastocysts (5th day after insemination) are frozen by vitrification method. Depending on the condition of the patient freezing procedure can be executed on the 1st or 3rd days.

The most important factor affecting the success of the freezing and solubility procedure is the quality of the embryo. The embryos that were decided to be frozen needs to meet the determined quality criteria. Freezing procedure causes pressure upon the embryos and bad quality embryos could not endure the process.

The storage period of the embryos in our clinic is 3 years. The freezing period needs to be specified on the freezing approval forms and signed by the patients accordingly with the regulations of the Ministry of Health. If the embryos are not used after 3 years they are disposed.