Egg Freezing: The Process

How it works

1 Individual assessment (allow 1 hour)

Fertility assessment and consultation with Dr Rodgers. You will discuss your medical history and investigations (blood tests and a pelvic ultrasound) will be ordered to assess your ovarian reserve. You will have a chance to ask any questions you have and discuss whether egg freezing is a viable option for you.

2 Appointment with Genea Horizon nurses (allow 1 hour)

The nurses at Genea Horizon will discuss the details and logistics of the prescribed treatment with you. They will teach you how to administer your hormonal medications (yes, these are injections, but you use an injecting pen so they’ve simple to administer) and provide you with a personalised day-to-day plan for your cycle.

3 Monitoring allow (30-40mins per visit)

After you’ve met with the Genea Horizon nurses, you will know exactly when to start your cycle. After a week of injections you’ll come in to level 2 of Genea in Sydney CBD for an early morning blood collection and ultrasound to assess the growth of the follicles. Most people need to come for one or two more follicle monitoring appointments before enough follicles have grown to the required size. All of the blood test and ultrasound results automatically upload to Dr Rodgers’ computer system, so she will be talking to the Genea Horion nurses daily about your cycle. When your follicles have grown to the required size, the nurses will tell you to take your trigger medication (this medication triggers the eggs to mature).

4 Egg collection (you will need this day off work)

The egg collection is a procedure that takes about 15-30 minutes and is conducted under a light general anaesthetic. A transvaginal ultrasound used to visualise the ovarian follicles so that a needle can be inserted through the wall of the vagina to collect the eggs (don’t worry, you’re asleep so this won’t hurt). One of the Genea scientists will be in the operating theatre at the time of the egg collection and as soon as the procedure is completed, they will take your eggs to the lab located in the room next to the operating theatre to use Genea’s world-leading technology to snap freeze your eggs and store them in a personalised pod until they are needed in years to come. You will be able to go home around an hour after your procedure has been completed.

5 Follow up

Most patients make a follow up appointment with Dr Rodgers after their egg freezing cycle to discuss whether enough eggs have been collected to give them a good chance of a future pregnancy, or whether additional cycles would be recommended.

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