Egg Freezing in San Diego

Thinking about freezing your eggs in San Diego? Whether you’re ready to start the egg-freezing process or want to learn more about fertility preservation, our team at RPSD is here to guide you. Schedule a consultation with one of our experienced fertility specialists to understand your fertility health and next steps.

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What is Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET)?

Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) is a highly effective fertility treatment in San Diego, offering individuals and couples the opportunity to achieve their dreams of parenthood with flexibility and precision. This process involves thawing a previously cryopreserved embryo and transferring it into the uterus to establish a pregnancy. As a key component of IVF treatment in San Diego, FET is an essential part of modern assisted reproductive technology (ART), empowering patients to grow their families on their terms.

Is Egg Freezing Right For You?

Start by asking yourself these three questions. Everyone’s fertility journey is unique, but if your answer to any of these questions involves being over 35, egg freezing could be a valuable option for preserving your fertility. Explore our overview of fertility basics to learn more about what to expect during your fertility assessment.

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How Old Are You?

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How Old Will You Be When You Have Your First Child?

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Ideally, How Old Will You Be When You Have Your Last Child?

When Should You Freeze Your Eggs?

If you’re thinking about starting a family but aren’t quite ready yet, you’re not alone. Many women today are choosing to wait for various reasons. Thanks to advancements in egg freezing technology, you now have more options and can start your family when the time is right for you. Egg freezing can be a crucial step for those who want to preserve their fertility for future family planning. Whether you’re focusing on your career, haven’t met the right partner yet, or simply want to have options down the road, understanding when to freeze your eggs is essential.

Benefits of FET:

✔ Higher Success Rates – Advances in IVF success rates in San Diego, such as vitrification (a rapid freezing process), have significantly improved embryo survival and live birth rates.

✔ Flexibility – FET allows you to schedule your embryo transfer at the optimal time for your health and personal timeline.

✔ Cost Savings – By freezing embryos in San Diego during an initial cycle, patients can avoid multiple egg retrievals, reducing overall treatment costs.

Our Egg Freezing Process: Rapid Freezing

Egg freezing has been part of fertility treatments for a long time, but now there’s an improved way to do it: egg vitrification, also known as rapid freezing. Our experienced, highly qualified doctors and skillful embryologists are leaders in this field and are proud to have helped with the first successful birth in San Diego using this method. Here’s how it works:

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Ovarian Stimulation and Monitoring

You’ll self-administer injectable hormonal treatments for about 10 to 14 days to stimulate your ovaries to produce multiple mature follicles/eggs.

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Egg Retrieval

Eggs are retrieved from your ovaries through an ultrasound-guided follicle aspiration. You will receive sedation for this procedure.

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Egg Freezing (Vitrification)

Your eggs are frozen with vitrification, a fast and effective method of freezing eggs. It involves using a high concentration of cryoprotectant to prevent ice crystal formation and rapidly freezing the eggs to form a glass-like solid. This technique is superior to traditional slow freezing methods and helps to protect the egg during the freezing and thawing process.

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Egg Storage

Your eggs will remain frozen in a liquid nitrogen storage tank in our embryology laboratory until you’re ready to conceive. The liquid nitrogen tanks are constantly monitored by an alarm system, ensuring their preservation at a temperature of -196 degrees celsius around the clock.

Next Steps

Whether you plan to conceive within a few years or want to wait longer, the vitrification process preserves your eggs in the same state of health as when they were collected. This provides optimal chances of success for fertilization. Here’s what you can expect:

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Preparing Your Uterus

Once you’re ready to conceive, you’ll undergo a short course of hormone treatment to prepare your uterus for the upcoming embryo transfer. These hormones prepare your uterine lining for the implantation of your embryo(s). Embryo transfer can also be timed according to your menstrual cycle (natural cycle transfer).

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Egg Thawing

Our embryologists thaw your eggs by rapidly placing them in a warm solution containing a cryoprotectant, which prevents the formation of ice crystals. The eggs are then washed in a series of solutions to remove the cryoprotectant and placed in a culture medium before the ICSI procedure.

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Fertilization

Our experienced embryologists fertilize your egg through Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). During this process, the embryologist uses a thin glass pipette to immobilize a single sperm, draws it into the pipette, and then injects it directly into the egg’s cytoplasm. Since the egg is the size of a pinpoint, this sophisticated technique requires a high-powered microscope, tiny glass pipettes, and instruments that translate hand movements into extremely fine movements of the pipettes.

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Embryo Culture and Transfer

After your embryo(s) grow in the lab for three to five days, we choose one embryo to transfer into your uterus. We specialize in elective single-embryo transfer (eSET) — the process of transferring only one embryo into your uterus — as this method reduces the risk of multiple pregnancy, thus increasing your chance of a healthy pregnancy and baby.