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During an In-vitro Fertilization cycle, 10 or more eggs are removed from a woman's ovaries and combined with a man's sperm and as many as four may be transplanted into the woman's uterus. The remaining embryos are then frozen (cryopreserved) in canisters of liquid nitrogen about 320 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
At Fertility C.A.R.E embryos can be cryopreserved anywhere from the 2PN stage (24 hours after fertilization) to the blastocyst stage (day 5-6). View this photo of the embryo development. They are frozen in labeled straws with a plastic topper that is also labeled with the patient's name, birth date, date of retrieval and the stage of the frozen embryos.
The straws are heat sealed and placed in a plastic tube on an aluminum cane that is kept in liquid nitrogen. They are kept at -196°C and the levels of the liquid nitrogen are checked each day. Although they can be kept in this environment permanently, it is up to the patient to decide the disposition of embryos in the future.
Consents for embryo freezing or thawing must be filled out and confirmed prior to starting an IVF cycle. There are records kept of each embryo frozen or thawed and all information is confirmed before each process takes place.
Read the following article from the front page of the Orlando Sentinel about a couple who successfully became parents from 12-year-old frozen embryos.
And feel free to contact us at Fertility C.A.R.E. to answer any questions or concerns you have about cryopreservation.
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