Egg Freezing OR Embryo Freezing, What’s the Difference?

　　
　　Egg freezing or embryo freezing
　　How to choose?
　　Many IVF expectant parents will come across the situation of not having children for the time being but want to preserve their fertility, at this time, egg freezing or embryo freezing is the question of many expectant parents. Why is it that some women of similar age are recommended to undergo egg freezing while others are recommended to undergo embryo freezing? Which of the two has a higher success rate? …… These are some of the more popular questions, and today Jabra will analyse them in detail to see which one is suitable for your own situation.

　　Part1 Definition
　　👉 Egg freezing: i.e. freezing eggs. It means that under the condition that the woman’s mother is healthy, through the doctor’s guidance to promote ovulation, the eggs are frozen to avoid the quality of eggs decreasing with the aging of the body. Frozen eggs are in a dormant state and will not continue to grow and develop, nor will they age over time, nor will their genetic material be affected. Eggs can be frozen for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or even longer depending on your needs. When you want to have children, you can thaw the eggs and use them. It is important to note that the older a woman gets, the more her ovarian function declines and the number and quality of her eggs decreases significantly. There is little point in freezing and preserving problematic eggs, so it is recommended that women undergo egg freezing before the age of 35 to obtain a larger number of better quality eggs.
　　👉 Frozen Embryos: i.e. frozen embryos. It means that after the doctor helps the mother-to-be to promote ovulation and retrieve eggs, the sperm eggs will be cultured into blastocysts, and the healthy embryos will be frozen and stored after PGS screening, and will be transferred when she wants to have children. Embryo freezing is a very sophisticated method of preserving fertility. For young couples who do not have fertility plans for the time being, who are worried that the quality of eggs decreases with age, and who are afraid of missing the golden age of childbearing, they can undergo embryo freezing, that is, the first half of the IVF cycle, i.e., healthy blastocysts that have been obtained after ovulation, egg/seminal retrieval, sperm-egg union, blastocyst cultivation, and genetic testing are frozen and stored, and then thawed out and transferred when they really want to have a child. Embryo freezing is the use of liquid nitrogen, preserved in a liquid nitrogen environment at -196°C. In this environment, the growth of the embryo is stopped, the enzyme activity is completely inhibited, and the cells are in a metabolically quiescent state. Therefore, frozen embryos do not affect the quality of the foetus, not to mention the health of the baby.
　　✔ As can be seen from the definition, the two frozen forms are different. The frozen form of frozen egg is a single-celled egg, and the frozen form of frozen embryo is an early embryo. The difference between the egg and the embryo is very big, the egg is only a germ cell, relatively speaking, it has higher requirements for the external environment; while the embryo contains multiple cells, and its ability to adapt to the outside world is much stronger than that of the egg cell, and it is more stable.

　　Part2 Quality judgement
　　👉 egg freezing: egg freezing is a single cell, before freezing can not be diagnosed by genetic screening to determine whether the eggs are healthy, the quality can only be roughly judged by the age of the woman, the examination data, the results can only say that the greater the number of eggs the better, and can not be clear about the quality of good and bad.
　　👉 Frozen Embryos: When freezing embryos, the third generation IVF PGT technology will be used to carry out chromosome number and structure screening and analysis of embryos, to exclude chromosomally abnormal embryos, and also diagnose and weed out the effects of hereditary diseases on embryos. In this case, it can be confirmed that the frozen embryos are of good quality and chromosomal problems-free, and the success rate of future transfer can be roughly judged.

Part3 Recovery Rate
　　👉 Frozen Eggs: Since eggs are single cells, they are more sensitive to temperature and the effect of cryoprotectants. The process of freezing and thawing can cause damage to the fine structure and organelles of the eggs, and it is estimated that the survival rate of frozen eggs thawed is usually about 70-80%, and that there will be a difference of about 10% between the frozen eggs and the fresh eggs.
　　👉 Frozen Embryos: Frozen embryos are the only safe and low-risk method of fertility preservation in the world. Embryos contain multiple cells and are more structurally stable, so they are much more resilient to the outside world than egg cells. At present, the recovery rate of frozen embryos has reached more than 95%, and there are also successful cases of embryo transfer in China with 18 years of freezing.

　　Part4Adaptable Crowd
　　👉 Egg freezing is suitable for unmarried women
　　①Freedom of reproduction, women have the right to decide when to have children. For women, after 35 years old, the quality and quantity of eggs will decline, and in the face of the double pressure of rushing to marriage and rushing to give birth, egg freezing, allows women to have the right to choose, to have a life of regrets, and not to be kidnapped by time.
　　② In modern society, there are also many women who are well-educated and have a certain degree of cognitive and self-improvement ability. Many of them are still single because they want to find someone who is compatible and suitable to have and raise a child together, but at the same time, they also need a lot of time to plan. Egg freezing also gives hope to these single women, allowing them to ‘freeze’ time.
　　③For women who may be suffering from a lack of ovarian function, such as those who are suffering from cancer and need to undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy or removal of diseased ovarian tissue, they can freeze their eggs in advance to preserve their fertility.
　　👉 Frozen embryos are suitable for married women
　　①If you are a young couple who do not have any fertility plan for the time being, and you are worried that the quality of your eggs will continue to decline with age, and you want to preserve your prime reproductive years, you can freeze the healthy blastocysts that have gone through PGS/PGD genetic testing after completing the first half of the cycle through IVF, and then thaw them out and transfer them when you want to have a baby.
　　②Couples who have a second child birth plan can directly use the remaining healthy and high quality embryos from the first IVF.
　　③Women who cannot be transferred in the IVF cycle for the time being: excellent physical condition of women is one of the elements for successful embryo transfer, including normal female organism, excellent intrauterine environment and stable endocrine level for embryo transfer, so generally IVF clinics will freeze the embryos, and then transfer them when the prospective mothers’ uterus is in good condition, so as to increase the rate of one-time conception.
　　Regardless of whether it is egg freezing or embryo freezing, here we need to remind all our little sisters to freeze before it is too late, because the quality of women’s eggs decreases with age, the older she gets, the fewer mature eggs she can get, and the fewer embryos she can get from fertilisation, and accordingly, the success rate of thawing will also change.
　　So, if you are asking about the best time to freeze, then I would definitely say – right now!