Many patients often ask us to know about the difference between fresh and frozen IVF cycle. No doubt, hearing about these terms for the first time can be very confusing. We hope that the following information we have mentioned in this topic will help you make the right choice under the guidance of your fertility doctor.

What is a frozen and fresh cycle?

Undergoing the IVF treatment you are going to go through this process.

• During the procedure, the patient is given medications that help in stimulating egg production.
• Then happens the egg retrieval procedure which is then handed for the fertilization process.
• Following that occurs the embryo transfer which is transferred to the women’s reproductive tract.
• The embryo of good quality is frozen.

What does this mean?

• Let’s say women have received medications and undergone an egg retrieval process. During the procedure around 9 eggs are collected and around 6 of them got fertilized. In a few days, either one or 2 will be transferred back which is known as fresh transfer as eggs are collected freshly. There will be around 4 to 5 good embryos left. In this case, you can decide whether you want to get them frozen for later use.
• In case the fresh cycle did not work in your favor then frozen embryos will help. If unfortunately, that did not work then you will go through the fresh stimulation again.

What is referred to as Freeze-all?

In some cases, it is suggested that no embryo will be transferred as all of them will be frozen. This happens when the patient responded to the medications in excess, or issue with the womb lining. Your IVF doctor will let you know in detail what is actually right for you.

Why there is an increase in the Frozen Embryo Transfer?

Once the embryos are frozen they won’t get affected. This means if the embryo is frozen at the age of 34 and you use them 5 years later, they will be of 34 only! When the patient is ready the embryo will be used in the fresh cycle to increase the conception chances. It is true with the change and improvement in technology the results are produced in a better manner.

Are frozen embryos always going to survive the thawing process?

In some cases, there are very small chances that an embryo might not survive the freezing and thawing process. In that case, another embryo is thawed or the embryo transfer is canceled.

How long the embryos can be frozen?

Standard time is 10 years, though it can be shorter or longer than this.

According to your case, the doctor will suggest the right choice. For further details, you should visit our IVF centre.