Egg freezing is similar to embryo freezing except that after the eggs are retrieved following ovarian stimulation, they are frozen without being fertilized by sperm. Egg freezing is usually done either to preserve eggs when a woman is going to undergo cancer or other treatment that could permanently damage or destroy the eggs (e.g. radiation or chemotherapy), or for a woman who does not have a partner and/or does not yet want to get pregnant but wants to preserve her fertility by freezing eggs for future use.Eggs can be kept frozen for many years so that when the woman wants to use the eggs they can be thawed, fertilized with her partner’s sperm (or donor sperm if she has no partner) and the resulting embyo(s) transferred into the uterus 3 or 5 days later after the fertilization.
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