Cryopreservation of oocytes: history, achievements and future

Abstract

There have been increasing requirements for women’s fertility preservation due to oncological and nononcological reasons in recent years, and meeting these demands will be a hot topic in the coming years. Oocyte cryopreservation is a workable option for preserving women’s fertility, and great advances have already been made and much progress has been made in mammalian gene banking and human oocyte banks. In this paper, we systematically introduce the history of oocyte cryopreservation and vitrification technology and highlight the vitrification carrier. Furthermore, we summarize the fundamentals of oocyte vitrification and discuss the effects of vitrification on oocyte quality. Strategies to improve the effect of oocyte cryopreservation are also proposed. At the end of this review, we conclude oocyte cryopreservation and outline future perspectives.