I tell you about my first appointment for egg freezing

As we told you in story on the @gapianne account, we are 3 out of 4 at Gapianne to follow the egg freezing procedure in France.

And yes ! For very different reasons, we all wanted to preserve our oocytes to consider (or not) motherhood a little later.

We didn't know anything about the process so we decided to tell you about our experience. We hope that this article will be useful to you and will help you in your steps (which you can imagine, a little cumbersome!).

PRESERVING YOUR OOCYTES BY FREEZING

THE news of 2021 was the law of August 2 relating to bioethics, which opens societal oocyte vitrification to all women in France!
In practice, egg freezing involves three steps:

• First of all, during the first appointment, the patient's situation is studied , as well as the probabilities of success of the sample and the possible risks.

• A series of tests are then carried out, including blood tests, gynecological examinations and ultrasounds.

• The last step is the puncture .

Here I share with you my experience and the important information I gathered during my first appointment.

Do not hesitate to comment or write to us if you have additional information!

WHAT I LEARNED ON MY FIRST DATE

The egg freezing procedure is now called vitrification procedure (rapid freezing technique), is open to all women between the ages of 29 and 37 and has been covered by social security since 2021.

WHAT IS MAP (MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TO PROCREATION)?

Every woman can make a very personal choice to postpone motherhood and start a family later. The oocyte freezing procedure is part of a process called AMP (medically assisted procreation).

• This procedure is open to all women aged 29 to 37 and has been covered by social security since 2021.

• The remaining freezing costs payable by you vary from €40 to €200 per year .

• Freezing your eggs does not mean that you will no longer be able to procreate naturally.

• The procedure involves stimulating the production of oocytes to bring them to maximum maturity and then collecting them at a specific time. To me, it feels like a kind of life insurance, and my gynecologist told me: "I wish you didn't have to use them, but by preserving your oocytes, you maximize your chances of being able to procreate."

HOW TO PROCEED ?

Since there are many requests and the process can be somewhat difficult, I suggest you follow my own egg freezing experience here on Gapianne. I will give you the information I have obtained.

• Make an appointment with a gynecologist specializing in fertility. I went to the Institut Médical de la Fertilité and made an appointment with Dr. Soizic Le Parco, who had been recommended to me by a friend. I found her very pleasant, reassuring and educational.

• She wrote me a letter of recommendation to send to hospitals in Paris performing the procedure, telling me that it would take time because of the large number of requests in the Paris region. She will ask you if you have ties outside of Paris, as the procedure may take less time in other regions of France.

• She prescribed me two exams : an endovaginal pelvic ultrasound during my next period and a blood test.

• Ultrasound can help detect undiagnosed endometriosis, for example, but in my case it doesn't focus on my ability to conceive naturally.

• She provided me with a list of email addresses of hospitals to contact to make an appointment for egg retrieval. However, these appointments can take months to obtain due to saturation of hospitals.

• I share with you the contact details that I collected here for those who are interested (and who live in Paris or in the Parisian suburbs):

Hospital	E-mail
Mutual Institute Montsouris	imm-amp@imm.fr
Tenon Hospital	secretariat.amp.tnn@aphp.fr
Cochin Hospital	resa.cecos.cch@aphp.fr
Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital	amp.accueil.bch@aphp.fr
Jean Verdier Hospital	preservation-fertilite.jvr@aphp.fr
Poissy Hospital	amp.chips@ghtyvelinesnord.fr
Four Cities Hospital Center	01 77 70 78 00
Foch Hospital	rdv.amp@hopital-foch.com

• I have received responses, but each hospital has a different procedure, so I advise you to create a tracking file to know when to follow up. In any case, having a letter of recommendation from a gynecologist saves time.

As I said, this is my experience, do not hesitate to share yours with us! I will keep you posted on upcoming events!

Anne

And if you are interested in the subject of fertility as a whole, here is an article co-written with Pauline Benaroch, dietician specializing in fertility: HOW TO BOOST YOUR FERTILITY NATURALLY: 6 TIPS .