Egg freezing

The CEFER Reproduction Institute established the first Egg Bank in Spain in 2001. In 2002, the first babies were born from frozen eggs. Now, another freezing technique, called vitrification, is being used.
The value of freezing (vitrification) is that it preserves female fertility when a woman must undergo any medical treatment (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, ovarian surgery) that may cause sterility.

Another reason for egg freezing is that the woman wishes to postpone motherhood, perhaps because she is single, or for other reasons.

Egg freezing is more effective if mature eggs are frozen. Therefore, before extracting the eggs, hormonal treatment is carried out so that the greatest amount of eggs mature. Egg extraction is done through puncture and aspiration of the ovarian follicles that contain floating eggs. It requires general anaesthesia (the woman is under for 10 to 20 minutes). It is not necessary to be admitted, nor is tracheal intubation required.
In short, it is the same as the first phase of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

The eggs can stay frozen for years. When the woman decides, the eggs can be unfrozen, fertilised with the sperm of her partner or an anonymous donor and the embryos transferred to the uterus (see the IVF–ICSI section).