Cryopreservation is the ability to freeze and store embryos that are not transferred right away. This process can allow couples to achieve a pregnancy later, either after a first birth or following medical treatments that might affect fertility such as chemotherapy for cancer treatment.

The availability of frozen embryos allows the performance of very economic IVF cycles since the thawing of cryopreserved embryos and their use in a frozen/thawed embryo transfer (FET) is much less involved and less costly than the generation of fresh embryos through a new IVF cycle. Embryos can be stored for many years. There is no reported increase of abnormalities in children born from frozen embryos.