A new study shows that using frozen embryos in IVF is as good as using fresh embryos.
When my wife and I decided to go through IVF one of my big worries was whether frozen embryos would be as successful as fresh.
We had been through a roller coaster of emotions just to produce embryos and it would have been devastating if they were affected by the freezing process.
The Study
In a study published today scientific researchers have shown that using frozen embryos in IVF is as successful as fresh embryos.
The study looked at 782 women undergoing IVF, half of whom received a frozen embryo with the other half receiving a fresh embryo.
The researchers found that 36.3% of the women receiving a frozen embryo became pregnant compared to 34.5% of women who received a fresh embryo.
This is obviously great news for us and all couples who have had embryos frozen.
Freezing embryos is becoming more common as techniques improve and this trend makes complete sense.
If you go through a cycle and produce more good quality embryos than can be transferred it would be crazy to discard them. To read more about the process and when embryos our frozen take a look at our Ultimate Guide to IVF post.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and if you would like to read it you can find it here (IVF Transfer of Fresh or Frozen Embryos in Women without Polycystic Ovaries. January 11, 2018 N Engl J Med 2018; 378:137-147).