Need to know:

Females are endowed with a finite and non-renewable repository of oocytes: around 1-2 million at birth. As a consequence, with age, the number and quality of oocytes decline. In sharp contrast, in males, postnatal replication of germ line stem cells within the testes produces tens of millions of sperm daily. 

Given the threat posed to the ovarian oocyte pool by cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and pelvic radiotherapy, to the ovarian oocyte pool, oocyte cryopreservation is now a routine fertility preservation option for women of reproductive age diagnosed with cancer. Aside from medical oocyte cryopreservation as an adjunct to cancer treatment, increasing numbers of women are freezing oocytes to combat the effects of natural ageing (so-called elective or non-medical oocyte cryopreservation). Illustrating this, there has been a staggering 311% increase in oocyte cryopreservation cycles seen in Australia and New Zealand between 2010 and 2015.¹

This article will review the role and processes involved in oocyte cryopreservation.