Together. All the way.

For decades we have employed slow freezing of gametes and embryos and performed the dehydration and rehydration steps at room temperature with results which until recently were considered satisfactory. Today, vitrification is the cryopreservation method of choice in many clinics and alternative protocols are available. Different manufacturers of vitrification products have different recommendations regarding procedure temperature, commonly either room temperature or 37⁰C, but which is the optimal temperature for vitrification and why? This blog post will give you insight.

^{Photo: Knoxville News Sentinel} 

It is with much sadness that we report the passing of Peter Mazur on December 30, 2015. Peter Mazur was a great scientist who contributed enormously to the current knowledge of cryobiology. Cryopreservation of cells and tissues has become important in not only human reproduction, but also in many other areas of medicine.

ASRM – the American Society for Reproductive Medicine took place in Baltimore, USA at the end of October. Together, the Vitrolife team covered most of the scientific sessions. The programme as always covered a large variety of topics. The continued interest in the use of time-lapse in the IVF clinic was particularly evident. In this blog post we share some of the highlights in our view.

Is so called social freezing, the ability to freeze a woman´s unfertilised egg, a controversial service or a revolution for women? Dr. Valérie Vernaeve, Medical Director at Eugin Clinic in Spain, has positive experience of helping women this way in her clinic. In this blog post she shares her experience and research on the relatively new phenomenon social freezing.

Associated Professor David Edgar is the scientific director at Melbourne IVF in Australia, with extensive experience in the field of assisted reproduction. One of his focus areas is how to optimise the ability of embryos to survive cryopreservation. In this blog post he discusses the question about the role of slowfreezing in assisted reproduction.

Once again we have visited ESHRE, the annual meeting for European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, the biggest event in the field of IVF. Together, the Vitrolife team covered most of the sessions and listened to many interesting and sometimes provoking presentations. In this blog post we will share some of our thoughts from this year’s meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.

Vitrification has in the recent years become the cryopreservation method of choice in many IVF-clinics. With survival rates superior to slow freezing and developmental potential of oocytes and embryos similar to fresh ones, results similar to fresh oocytes and embryos can be obtained. To continuously achieve these high survival rates there are matters to think about. In this blog post I will discuss some important factors.