Fertility preservation involves taking proactive steps to increase your chances of being able to have children in the future. There are a myriad of reasons that you may consider freezing your eggs or sperm.
At Fertility First, we understand that everyone’s personal circumstances are different and while you may intend to start or grow your family one day, you want to wait until the time is right. We are committed to providing you with our unbiased professional advice on preserving your fertility, including an honest discussion of your chances of successfully conceiving with frozen sperm or eggs.
The quality of a woman’s eggs and a man’s sperm naturally decrease with age, reducing the likelihood of conceiving each month and also increasing the risk of passing on a genetic defect. However, your current stage of life may need your attention elsewhere - on building your financial security, preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for parenthood, working on your career, or simply enjoying the next few child-free years.
The most common of these situations is cancer treatment. Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer are known to carry a high risk of reducing your fertility. These effects may last for several years or may be permanent. The field of oncofertility focuses on fertility preservation specifically in those undergoing cancer treatment.
Endometriosis, certain autoimmune or genetic conditions such as Turner syndrome are known to impact female fertility. In these cases, you may consider freezing your eggs at an early age to use with assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF in the future when you’re ready to start your family.
Also known as cryopreservation, the process of freezing eggs and sperm can be undertaken at our state-of-the-art laboratory in our Sydney fertility clinic.
For men, sperm freezing involves producing a semen sample. This can either be done in a private suite in our clinic or at home and the sample brought to our clinic within 1 hour. If male infertility factors mean you’re unable to produce this sample, we can retrieve the sperm using a quick procedure, either testicular sperm aspiration (TESA) or extraction (TESE). The collected sperm is then mixed in a specialised solution and frozen in storage until you’re ready to use it. Please contact our team if you would like to make an appointment for the sperm freezing procedure.
For women, the process of egg (or oocyte) freezing is a little more involved. To retrieve enough eggs for cryopreservation, we need to stimulate your ovaries to mature and produce multiple eggs instead of the typical one per month. This involves using stimulating hormone medications and undergoing regular blood tests and ultrasounds to monitor your progress over about 10 to 12 days. Once your eggs have matured, we collect them directly from the ovaries using a long, thin tube. These eggs are then frozen through a process known as vitrification, and then stored in liquid nitrogen for future use.
Yes, you will need a valid referral from your GP or other medical specialist. You will also need to have had blood tests for hepatitis B and C, and HIV within the preceding 12 months.
In New South Wales, legislation allows us to store frozen eggs for 15 years. However, there is a possibility of extending this period on a case-by-case basis.
Similar to frozen eggs, sperm may be kept cryopreservation storage for up to 15 years as per NSW state legislation, but we can consider storing it for longer depending on your circumstances.
Our fees for egg and sperm freezing include a once-off cost for the collection and freezing process and then ongoing storage costs of $300 every 6 months. Freezing fees depending on quantity for oocytes, and the number of freeze appointments. You can find a schedule of our current fees here.
We can also freeze and store embryos that have been created through the IVF or ICSI process. These embryos may be kept in storage for up to 15 years. If embryos have been created with donor sperm, the donors consent on length of storage will need to be confirmed.
