Egg freezing
Consultant gynaecologist and expert in reproductive medicine
What is egg freezing?
Egg freezing is a method of fertility preservation that allows people the possibility of using their own eggs to become a parent later in life.
How does egg freezing work?
After a consultation with a fertility doctor, expect to go through a few weeks of hormonal injections to stimulate the ovaries and produce multiple egg follicles. A doctor will monitor the follicles’ growth regularly. When the time is right, the doctor will prescribe a different hormonal medication to mature and release the eggs. The final step in egg collection is to be sedated for a procedure where the doctor collects as many mature eggs as possible.4
The eggs collected are frozen and stored, sometimes for years. When it’s time to use them, they’ll be thawed and fertilised with sperm from a partner or a donor (read our page on ICSI for more details on how the best sperm is selected). Healthy embryos can be transferred to a woman’s womb, and after a few weeks, a pregnancy test will show if it’s successfully implanted in the uterine wall.
How long can you freeze your eggs for?
You can store your eggs for up to 55 years! You’ll need to renew your consent to store them every 10 years.5 Many clinics charge a yearly storage fee.
Note: it’s important to provide your most up to date contact information with your clinic so that they can contact you with consent forms. If they can’t reach you to ensure you want to keep your eggs frozen, they may dispose of them.
How much does it cost to freeze your eggs?
In total, from collection to embryo transfer, it costs between £7,000-8,000 in the UK.6 Here’s how that breaks down:
Medication:
£500-1,500
Egg collection and freezing:
£3,350
Yearly cost for storage:
£250 per year
Thawing, fertilisation and embryo transfer:
£4,500
Common questions about egg freezing
Your fertility doctor will be able to answer your specific questions about your unique treatment plan, but there are a handful of questions that nearly every patient asks:
There’s no particular diet or meal plan to follow that will suit everyone. Your doctor will likely recommend specific foods and supplements that have worked well for others under their care. That said, here are a few guidelines:
- Omega 3 heavy foods, like salmon, trout, or even chia seeds and walnuts, can be good choices. Your doctor might also recommend that you take supplements like Vitamin D, CoQ10 for egg quality, Inositol, zinc, and antioxidants to improve the chances of retrieving good quality eggs.12
There’s a rare but possible risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which can be dangerous and require medical attention. Women who freeze eggs in their early 20s are at a higher risk for OHSS because of their larger egg supply and the potential to stimulate more follicles.11
People freezing eggs are limited to doing light physical activity during treatment to prevent the unlikely, but dangerous, risk of ovarian torsion, which can require surgery.
Aside from personal medical risks, there’s always a risk that some eggs won’t fertilise with sperm or may not survive thawing. The more eggs embryologists have to work with, the better chances of success.
You’ll contact your clinic and let them know you’re ready to use them. They’ll thaw the eggs and fertilise them with sperm to create embryos. Your doctor will prescribe medication to help your body accept any healthy embryos, and when the time is right, you’ll go through a short embryo transfer procedure to insert an embryo into the womb.9 After a few weeks, you’ll take a pregnancy test, and if it’s positive, you’ll carry the pregnancy to term. If it’s not positive, you can try again with your remaining embryos.
You can contact your clinic to understand your options. Generally, though, you can donate your eggs to research, donate them to another couple, or discard them, depending on your preferences.10
While conventional advice is “the sooner, the better,” like in your 20s or early 30s, the reality is that for many people, it may not be affordable until later in life. According to the HFEA, if you freeze eggs before age 35, using the frozen eggs in treatment later will give you a higher chance of success compared to using fresh eggs, especially if you are over the age of 40.8 We learn more about fertility science every year, and success rates are improving over time.
Some people want to have the option to become a parent later, but feel like they haven’t met a suitable partner yet. Others have medical conditions that limit their fertility and want to be able to use their own eggs with a surrogate. Trans men who plan to medically transition may want to preserve their eggs before beginning hormones or having surgery. Some young people want to preserve their best quality eggs at a young age to use later in life.7
It’s a personal decision that’s up to each person. Your fertility doctor can give advice that considers your age, goals, and financial ability to go through multiple rounds of egg freezing.
Is egg freezing suitable for me?
Egg freezing is suitable for people looking to preserve their fertility to build their family in the future. Read our guides for other treatments that could be suitable for you:
IUI
Standard IVF
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