The phrase “Plant a tree, write a book, have a child” is attributed to the Cuban poet Jose Marti. When I saw this attached picture (in English it is “Plant a tree, write a book, freeze an egg”), I stayed thinking about it. On the one hand, I was amused. On the other, it shows something that I see every day in my office and that is a reality: the oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing) is a procedure that almost everyone knows and that more and more women consider as an option in their daily lives. And it is a good alternative that, until a few years ago, did not exist.

Some time ago, I was looking at a line of ants and watching the phenomenal work performed by them, carrying leaves exceeding their own size. I recalled the Aesop’s fable of the ant to the grasshopper: how much the forethought can help in some cases, and I thought how, always, there is so much to learn from nature.

With the vitrification technique, oocyte cryopreservation took place among the assisted reproduction procedures. Today, it is used in many different clinical scenarios. One of them, perhaps one of the most common scenarios is that of women who want to postpone childbearing but do not want to lose the opportunity to try it in the future. As the fable of the ants, many of them decide to preserve their fertility by freezing eggs.

Oocyte cryopreservation is a technique that is a routine only from some few years ago, with the advents of vitrification, a technique to freeze the eggs in seconds. This technique, unlike the formers, prevents damage cells in the freezing process, achieving better eggs survival and a higher success rate. Since then, many women have consulted. At the beginning, it was very common to receive women who were around 40 years. It should be noted that, as in everyday life and in assisted reproduction treatments, the success rates of the procedure are mainly associated with the age of the woman. Why? Because eggs (unlike sperm that are permanently produced by the testes) have the women´s age, because no new eggs are generated. Then for women who are 30, the eggs are 30 years old; and for those who are 40, eggs are 40 years old too. And as age is increasing, it is more common to find eggs that were abnormally divided , having more or less than the expected chromosomes, and thus reducing the pregnancy rates and increasing the rates of spontaneous miscarriage.

Currently, it is more common to find women who consult at the age of 30 to 40. The optimal age for egg freezing is when the reproductive potential is still high. That is why many women between 25 and 35 years are considering freezing eggs.

How is the procedure? As with in vitro fertilization, ovulation is stimulated with injectable medication for 8-12 days with ultrasound monitoring every 2-3 days. Then, in the operating room, egg retrieval is performed; a simple procedure that lasts 10 minutes after which the patient goes home after two hours of hospitalization.

The retrieved eggs are finally cryopreserved, and then stored in a liquid nitrogen containers (a place where the temperature is very low) until the same woman decides to use them (usually a some years later). When they want to use them, they are thawed and an IVF is performed. The advantage is that, although women at that time is older (and if she decides to use their own fresh eggs, the success rate would be lower), in this case the chances of success remain high because those eggs were frozen at a younger age.

In conclusion, cryopreserving oocytes it is a routine, with high success rates, and a higher and higher degree of acceptance among women who see this technique as an opportunity to choose better when you get pregnant without being rushed for time.