IMR Press / CEOG / Volume 35 / Issue 4 / pii/1630639213169-323708768

Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology (CEOG) is published by IMR Press from Volume 47 Issue 1 (2020). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with S.O.G.

Editorial
Advances in oocyte cryopreservation - Part I: slow cool rapid thaw technique
Show Less
1 The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Camden, NJ (USA)
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2008, 35(4), 240–241;
Published: 10 December 2008
Abstract

Purpose: The need for freezing oocytes has been established for females undergoing potential therapy that could damage their ovarian egg reserve, ethical or religious reasons (not having excess embryos frozen) or women nearing the age of lower fecundity but not married and not ready to use donor sperm. Applying the cryopreservation techniques for oocytes as used for embryos resulted in very poor pregnancy results. Methods: Changes in methodology including fertilization by intracytoplasmic sperm injection because of zona hardness and using a sodium-deplete choline substitute freezing media are some of the changes made for the slow cool rapid thaw method. Results: These modifications have led to significant improved survival rates of frozen oocytes not to mention fertilization rates and subsequent pregnancy rates. Conclusions: Since some in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers do poorly with frozen embryo transfer pregnancy rates despite good pregnancy rates following fresh embryo transfer, there is suspicion that the culpability may lie in the programmable freezer used in the slow cool technique. A simplified slow cool freezing technique using a biocool freezer instead of a programmable freezer has been described which has resulted in consistently good results with embryos. It would be interesting to see if this technique would work well with oocytes with the new changes to the freezing method.
Keywords
Cryopreservation
Oocytes
Slow cooling
Choline
Share
Back to top