Another Happy Frozen Egg Mom-to-be Tours The Embryology Lab

After their first OB-Ultrasound; Stephanie, her husband, and her parents proudly hold pictures of the newest member of their family.

West Coast Fertility Centers would like to celebrate our newest frozen egg pregnancy. Stephanie and her husband came to us in 2008 with high hopes of finally starting their family. In planning Stephanie’s IVF treatment, she expressed concern regarding surplus embryos from her cycle. Traditionally, extra embryos created from a fresh IVF cycle are frozen and kept for future frozen embryo transfers. This is one of the main reasons couples find egg freezing to be very beneficial.

For personal and ethical reasons she requested to freeze her extra oocytes instead of freezing any embryos from her IVF cycle. From Stephanie’s fresh cycle, 28 eggs were retrieved and fifteen of her eggs were mature enough to utilize in her IVF treatment. Stephanie and her husband decided to inseminate three of her eggs and freeze the remaining twelve eggs to use in the future. Out of the three eggs that were inseminated with her husband’s sperm, two fertilized and were used in her embryo transfer.

Two weeks after her fresh embryo transfer, they received news that they weren’t pregnant but were determined to try again. Three months later Stephanie and her husband were prepared to proceed with another cycle, this time with her frozen eggs. They decided to thaw half of their frozen eggs, inseminate them and transfer the healthiest looking embryos. Unfortunately, they received the same news and although they were heartbroken they knew they had one more chance.

Another three months passed when they were ready to proceed and decided to thaw her remaining six oocytes to try one last time. Her eggs were thawed, inseminated and all six fertilized. This time they decided to culture their embryos for five days instead of the normal three days to allow the embryo to further develop. A five-day embryo culture is referred to as a blastocyst culture, which allows for the selection of the best quality embryos.

Stephanie, her husband, and her parents are seen here touring the egg freezing laboratory with Dr. Diaz and Embryologist Antoine La. Antoine is showing the family where her frozen eggs were kept for six months.

After waiting eagerly for two weeks, Stephanie and her husband were overjoyed to find out they were finally pregnant. This marks our 62nd pregnancy from West Coast Fertility Centers. Congratulations to Stephanie and her family; we are excited that your dreams are finally coming true.