Services We Provide

Women needing assisted reproduction have an alternative for preserving their fertility and starting families later in life.

Eggs retrieved from a woman’s body can be cryogenically preserved before fertilization and result in healthy pregnancies down the road.  Embryo Services offers a proven technology for egg freezing that will give your eggs the best chances of being healthy when you're ready to give them new life.

Egg preservation offers several advantages:

• Cancer patients can safeguard their fertility before undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy
• Women concerned about decreased chances of pregnancy after age 35 can preserve their fertility
• Frozen eggs can be thawed and fertilized as needed with resulting embryos transferred
• Additional attempts at pregnancy are more affordable than repeating egg-stimulation therapy
• Frozen, unfertilized eggs can be discarded without the moral issues surrounding fertilized embryos

For more information on egg preservation at Embryo Services please contact our embryologist, Susan Walker, at (423) 899-0500 ext. 215. 

Embryo cryopreservation or “freezing and storing” is a proven method of preserving fertility and making multiple attempts at conception more economical.

Embryo freezing benefits not only couples who have been diagnosed as infertile but also cancer patients needing to safeguard their chances of parenthood before undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy treatments that might damage reproductive organs or cause sterility.  Embryos intended to be frozen are created through IVF. If a couple is uncomfortable fertilizing all eggs retrieved through this process, the remaining eggs can be frozen and stored for fertilization at a later date.  Couples who do not plan to or cannot attempt pregnancy again but still have frozen embryos often anonymously donate those embryos to couples who are unable to conceive on their own. 

 Male patients undergoing cancer treatment may face compromised sperm production, quality, or motility as a result of exposure to chemotherapy and radiation.For patients concerned about these risks, sperm freezing prior to treatment is the most proven and successful method of fertility preservation.

In most cases, sperm can be collected and frozen weeks after chemotherapy begins. Even though viable sperm has successfully been retrieved up to 72 days after an initial treatment, it’s best to preserve a specimen as soon as possible. Aside from hereditary genetic syndromes, there is no evidence that a history of cancer or treatment increases the risk of cancer or congenital abnormalities in survivors’ offspring.  All cryopreservation patients are required to have blood work performed to screen for infectious diseases, since sperm is stored in the same large tanks that house eggs and embryos. Following labs, a patient must schedule a specific time to deliver a sperm specimen for a basic analysis to check count, motility, and speed before the sample is frozen. Embryo Services offers cryogenic sperm banking for an annual fee. Testicular sperm extraction may be necessary for men with no sperm in their ejaculate. With assistance from a urologist, this procedure is performed under anesthesia.

Embryo Services  does not accept sperm donations for monetary compensation. However, we do perform procedures using donated sperm from sperm banks.