Fairfax Fertility Lab Testing Fast-Frozen Eggs

A new technology being tested by the Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax could help women put their biological clocks on hold by fast-freezing their eggs.

Current freezing methods used to preserve embryos also produce ice crystals, which can damage less-resilient unfertilized eggs. So the institute is testing a process, called vitrification, that cools the eggs quickly so that the transformation from liquid to solid is immediate, without creating those hazardous ice crystals.

"Eggs are more sensitive to environmental insults," said Andrew D. Dorfmann, the company's director of embryology.

Dorfmann experimented with the method on mice for four years. Then early last year, the institute chose nine women, between the ages of 38 and 48, for an ongoing study. Today three have become pregnant using these fast-frozen eggs.

In vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment in which eggs are fertilized by sperm outside the womb, usually requires synchronizing the menstrual cycles of the egg donor and recipient. But that's no longer necessary with frozen eggs.

"It takes out one of the complicated factors in an already emotional complicated process," said one patient, a 43-year-old women from the Shenandoah Valley, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was early in her pregnancy.

Women and fertility doctors in Europe and Japan have shown the most interest in vitrification. Still, not much is known about the risks of using frozen eggs.

One recent study, conducted by McGill University in Canada, said the risk of birth defects when vitrified eggs are used is comparable to that of natural pregnancies and regular in vitro fertilization.

But some fertility doctors worry that vitrification will give younger women -- those who might freeze their eggs in their 30s with the intention of having children in their 40s -- a false sense of security. They may believe their eggs will last for decades on ice, but it's unclear whether that's possible with the new process.

If the study is promising, vitrification could pave the way to opening egg banks, Dorfmann said.

Men have been able to put their potential offspring on hold, thanks to sperm banks. Cyclist Lance Armstrong froze his sperm before undergoing treatment for testicular cancer and later fathered three children through in vitro fertilization. But for women undergoing chemotherapy, which often damages the ovaries, saving their eggs hasn't been an option.

Vitrification would also be a much cheaper alternative to donor eggs, which can cost thousands of dollars per donation cycle.

-- Kendra Marr