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What is the embryo freezing timeline?
If you’ve undergone an IVF cycle and have healthy embryos remaining, you can freeze these for further treatment so that you don’t need to repeat the egg collection procedure.
Embryo freezing is also an option for preserving your fertility using sperm from your partner, co-parent or donor and is usually a recommended option as embryos survive the freezing and thawing processes better than eggs or sperm.
What is embryo freezing?
Embryo freezing is slightly different to egg freezing, though many of the early steps of the procedure are similar and follow the same pathway as hormone-regulated or natural IVF.
With embryo freezing, the egg/s collected during an IVF cycle are fertilised with sperm and cultured in the lab for five to six days until they mature into an embryo. Healthy embryos are then cooled and safely stored for future use.
Although the exact timings can vary with your circumstances, the average time to freeze your embryos is around four to six weeks.
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Assessment and consultation
Up to 14 days
The first step to starting your treatment is a consultation and fertility assessment. We check your medical history and carry out vital tests and scans to make the best recommendations for you.
These include tests that:
Check your levels of hormones – to understand how well your ovaries and womb are functioning, alongside your egg count, or ovarian reserve
Scans, including ultrasound and more advanced investigations – to check the structure of your womb, ovaries, and fallopian tubes
These results help identify anything that could affect the success of retrieving and creating embryos or using them. We’ll then adapt your treatment plan or address underlying issues first.
If you’re planning to create the embryos using sperm from your partner, co-parent, or someone else that you know, they’ll also need a fertility assessment to check their sperm quality.
Sperm from a bank or licensed clinic undergoes extensive testing before storage and use.
You may need to visit the clinic two or three times to have all the appropriate assessments, and to meet with your consultant to discuss the results and the next steps. Depending on appointment scheduling, this can take around two weeks.
Ovarian stimulation
Around 14 days (may include additional 14 days menstrual suppression)
Usually, embryos are frozen in a batch. This gives the best chance of viable, high-quality embryos surviving the thawing process before treatment.
Ovarian stimulation helps to increase egg growth meaning a group of eggs can be collected for fertilisation. Without this, the ovaries naturally only release one egg per menstrual cycle.
The stimulation phase can be done by either suppressing your menstrual cycle for two weeks or straight away.
Ovarian stimulation itself takes around 14 days. The exact length depends on when your follicles are mature enough to take your trigger injection.
Natural IVF, which doesn't use hormones to stimulate egg production, is still an option for embryo freezing, though the time and cost to individually retrieve and fertilise multiple eggs means that people typically opt for hormone-regulated IVF.
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Egg retrieval
15 to 20 minutes
During ovarian stimulation, you’ll visit the clinic several times for scans to check how your eggs are developing. When they’re ready, we’ll instruct you to take your trigger shot at home.
Approximately 36 hours later, you’ll visit the clinic for your egg retrieval appointment. The procedure takes around 15 to 20 minutes, though you’ll be at the clinic for a few hours while you prepare and recover from the procedure. You’ll need a friend or family member to accompany you to the clinic to help escort you home.
Learn more about IVF and the retrieval procedure.
Fertilisation
One day
We fertilise your eggs in the laboratory on the same day as your egg retrieval, using sperm from your partner, co-parent, or a sperm donor.
In conventional IVF, the sperm and eggs are mixed to allow for natural fertilisation, however, if there are male fertility factors, we can use a procedure known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where we inject a single sperm directly into each egg.
Embryo culture
The fertilised eggs (now embryos) are incubated for five to six days. This allows the embryo to mature into a complex blastocyst, which is linked with higher pregnancy rates at implantation.
Some of our clinics use an Embryoscope™ with built-in cameras to create time-lapse videos, helping us identify the strongest embryos most likely to implant successfully.
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Embryo freezing
Instant
Once matured, we examine the blastocysts under a microscope. We grade them based on their characteristics such as cell number, and how organised and tightly packed their cells are.
We select the highest-grade blastocysts to freeze. Usually, we aim to select only grade A embryos, as these have the best chance of implanting. However, your consultant considers several factors, including your age.
The freezing process
The freezing process, called vitrification, uses extremely low temperatures to rapidly freeze embryos. The embryos are first placed in protective fluid before they’re frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Freezing your embryos is the fastest part of the process, taking just a matter of minutes to safely preserve them before placing them in storage.
Storage
Up to 55 years
We store your embryos securely in a tank of liquid nitrogen in thin tubes called straws, which are labelled with your unique identifying information.
In the UK, embryos can be stored for up to 55 years. You’ll need to renew your consent with us every ten years.
How many times can embryos be frozen?
Generally, we prefer to freeze embryos just once. It is possible to thaw frozen embryos and then re-freeze them but there is a small risk of damage to the embryo.
At our clinics, we typically thaw one embryo at a time and then assess its quality. This allows us to safely preserve the others without wasting any embryos.
If you’re a candidate for double embryo transfer, then we thaw both embryos that are required for transfer.
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Rates of success
The most recent data from HFEA across all ages suggest frozen embryo transfers today have similar success rates to fresh embryo transfers.
Our success rates for frozen embryo transfers across all our clinics are consistently higher than the national average. You can find detailed success rates for each on individual clinic pages.
Explore by finding your nearest clinic.
Freeze your embryos with TFP Fertility
If you’re exploring preserving your fertility or considering IVF with a frozen embryo transfer, we’re here to help. Contact our friendly team for more information or to book an appointment.
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