Freezing

If you need to put your kids plan on hold then you can quite literally put it on ice with the baby-making experts at Genea. We can collect your eggs and sperm in fairly straightforward treatments through our clinics and then use our world-leading technology to freeze them.

Freezing and storing potential future babies is also a super important part of IVF cycles and ICSI cycles too. Any extra embryos created during the IVF process and not transferred fresh can be frozen in our labs and safely stored in specially designed tanks in our clinics. During the PGS and PGD process, embryos are frozen and kept on ice while our scientists do their clever testing stuff.

When you decide to freeze your eggs and embryos at Genea, we take special care to snap freeze them (aka vitrify them) in the world’s first automated vitrification instrument, Gavi^®. Traditionally done by hand by scientists, vitrification is a time-consuming process which requires a high degree of precision and is vulnerable to human and environmental variances. Gavi^® - which our baby-making experts created - automates and standardises key stages of the process, making sure the eggs and embryos are consistently snap frozen before storing them in a personalised Gavi^® pod until they are needed.

Gavi^® is used around the world – but in Australia, you’ll only find it with our experts at a Genea clinic.

Freezing eggs

You might be Googling egg freezing because you have a medical situation that might cause some damage to them and impair ovarian function such as imminent chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment for cancer. We know that time is of the essence when it comes to protecting your fertility ahead of cancer treatment so please get in touch with us so one of our Fertility Specialists can quickly discuss the right plan for you. Other women choose to freeze their eggs because they are aware of the impact of age on fertility and want to give themselves options in later years and put their baby-making on ice. (Is anyone else humming Ice, Ice Baby to themselves? No? Just me?)

Egg freezing at Genea Horizon Egg freezing for medical and non-medical reasons is available at all of our clinics but if you are able to visit Genea Sydney CBD, Genea Horizon is our dedicated egg freezing clinic (for non-medical reasons). The first of its kind, we offer clinical excellence at an affordable cost in an environment that understands and caters specifically for women who are considering their future fertility options. Genea Horizon is also now available at Genea Canberra and Genea Hollywood Fertility in Perth. Visit the website

Freezing sperm

Men can also put their fertility on ice by freezing their sperm. Sperm is frozen using a slightly different method and then safely stored in specially designed tanks in our clinics. Clinicians may recommend that you freeze sperm:

• if you are about to undergo major surgery or medical treatments, such as radiation or chemotherapy treatment for cancer;
• if you are exposed to a toxic environment;
• if you are having a vasectomy (and there is a possibility that you may want to have children in the future); or
• if you have a dangerous profession or pastime where there is risk of injury.

Patients also freeze sperm ahead of assisted reproductive treatment as a backup just in case they are unable to attend due to travel or other commitments or if they have experienced difficulty collecting a sample.
 

Freezing embryos

Our BHAGoal at Genea is to do one egg and sperm collection per patient and from this one stimulation cycle, create enough good quality embryos for patients to complete their family. It’s the egg collection, with the hormone injections, day surgery procedure and cost - that are the greatest impost to the woman. In contrast, the subsequent use of frozen embryos is fairly simple, often drug free and less than half the cost of a fresh cycle. At Genea, 58% of patients who achieved a live birth and returned for a frozen transfer have had a second child with just one fresh stimulated IVF cycle^*. The One Cycle, One Family approach is at the heart of what we do and so our vitrification technique is of the highest standard to enable us to achieve this.
 

About vitrification

Vitrification is the process Genea uses to freeze eggs and embryos. Genea was the first clinic in Australia to develop and routinely replace the old slow freezing method with the more efficient and successful vitrification process. Older techniques risked ice crystals forming during the freezing process. We want to avoid ice crystals forming in your eggs or embryos as this can result in cell damage. Thankfully, vitrification technology is similar to snap freezing and removes the risk of ice crystals forming. Our scientists place the eggs or embryos in a special solution called a vitrification medium and that solution is then cooled so quickly that the structure of the water molecules (in the eggs and embryos) doesn’t have time to form ice crystals. Instead, it instantaneously solidifies into a glass-like structure.

If you’re thinking about your fertility treatment and egg freezing options, making sure that you have access to leading science is key. Genea draws on more than 30 years’ experience in fertility treatment to offer the latest innovative fertility technologies. Protecting and storing your embryos and eggs in optimal fluid and offering consistency in freezing results using Gavi^® maximises the potential for you to have a baby in the future.