IVF Knowledge

If you are specifying a new cryopreservation facility, or expanding an existing one, this is the shape of the full equipment list rather than the three lines that usually reach procurement first. Storage vessels Size on projected inventory, not current inventory. Since 1 July 2022 UK patients can store eggs, sperm and embryos for up to 55 years provided they reconsent every ten years, per the HFEA, so samples now leave storage far more slowly than under the previous ten year limit. A vessel sized to today's numbers tends to be full within a couple of years. Ask two things of every quotation: the static evaporation rate, and what that means as a weekly nitrogen order. If it is not on the specification sheet, request it in writing. Nitrogen supply and refill equipment A storage vessel is only as good as its refill routine, and the equipment differs by volume. Bench decanting is safest with a non pressurised dispensing dewar and a foot pump, because there is no gas pressure to manage ...

Most people encounter cryogenic technology without realising it. The MRI machine uses superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium at -269 degrees Celsius. The COVID vaccine was stored at -70 degrees Celsius. The IVF clinic freezes embryos at -196 degrees Celsius using liquid nitrogen. These are all cryogenic applications. They share the same fundamental physics, the same engineering principles, and the same central challenge: keeping something extremely cold in an environment that is trying to warm it up. What cryogenics means Cryogenic technology covers the production and use of temperatures below -150 degrees Celsius. Below this threshold, gases that exist as familiar substances at room temperature become liquids with very different properties. Nitrogen becomes a liquid at -196 degrees Celsius. Oxygen liquefies at -183 degrees Celsius. Helium, the coldest commonly used cryogenic fluid, boils at -269 degrees Celsius, just four degrees above the coldest possible temperature (abs...

 If you have been through IVF and have embryos in storage, you have probably thought about this. Maybe you asked your clinic and got a reassuring but vague answer. Maybe you Googled it and found conflicting information. Maybe you just pushed the thought aside because it felt too complicated to untangle. Here is the straightforward answer, in plain English. What science says Frozen embryos stored at -196 degrees Celsius are in a state of complete biological suspension. Nothing degrades. Nothing changes. The embryo that goes into the storage tank is, at the molecular level, identical to the embryo that comes out -- provided the storage conditions have been maintained correctly. A baby has been born from an embryo stored for 27 years. Studies consistently show no difference in outcomes between embryos stored for one year and those stored for nine. The science is clear: time, at these temperatures, does not affect viability. What UK law says The Human Fertilisation and Embryology...

Egg freezing is everywhere in 2026. It is on magazine covers, in workplace benefits packages, and in conversations among women in their thirties who are not yet ready to start a family. What is rarely discussed is what actually happens after egg collection day. That omission matters, because the laboratory stage, not the collection stage, is where outcomes are determined. From experimental to standard practice As recently as 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine classified egg freezing as experimental. The technology has moved significantly since then. Vitrification, the ultra-rapid freezing technique that eliminates ice crystal formation by cooling eggs faster than 15,000 degrees Celsius per minute, transformed the clinical picture. Post-warming oocyte survival rates now regularly exceed 90 percent in skilled laboratories. Research from NYU Langone found a 70 percent live birth rate among women who froze eggs before 38 and thawed 20 or more. The UK reports frozen e...

In 1984, the world's first baby born from a frozen embryo arrived in Australia. The embryo had been stored at -196 degrees Celsius for two months. Today, successful pregnancies have been reported from embryos stored for over 27 years. The science is clear: at -196 degrees Celsius, all molecular motion stops. There is no ageing, no cellular degradation, no DNA damage. Biological time ceases. A 2020 study published in Human Reproduction found no difference in live birth rates between embryos stored for one year and those stored for nine years. The storage duration did not determine the outcome. The storage conditions did. What the HFEA says In the UK, embryo storage is regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The standard storage limit is ten years, extendable to 55 years in defined circumstances where one or both gamete providers has a condition likely to affect their fertility prematurely. This is a significant change from earlier limits and has practical ...

Cryolab attended two of the most significant events in reproductive medicine and andrology science in 2026, exhibiting at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology Annual Meeting in London in July, and representing the company at the XVth International Symposium on Spermatology at the University of Birmingham later that same month. ESHRE 2026: ExCeL London, 5 to 8 July ESHRE 2026 took place at ExCeL London, drawing thousands of clinicians, embryologists, scientists, and industry professionals from across the world. Cryolab exhibited at stand D08, presenting liquid nitrogen storage vessels, dry shippers, controlled rate freezers, and cryogenic consumables to visitors from fertility clinics, NHS trusts, university hospitals, and research institutions. Paul Hague, who has attended 42 consecutive ESHRE Annual Meetings since the first in Bonn in 1985: "ESHRE has grown from a small gathering of specialists into the central forum for reproductive medicine in Europe. W...