\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen I first told my mother I was freezing my eggs, she asked: \u201cSo my grandchildren are going to be stored next to some H\u00e4agen-Dazs?\u201d (Very funny, Mum.) I\u2019m one of an increasing number of women in the UK who have chosen to put their eggs on ice in order to preserve their fertility, although this does \u2013 as discussed later \u2013 have clear limitations.<\/p>\n According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK\u2019s regulator for\u00a0the fertility industry, there was a 170% increase in the number of egg freezing cycles between 2019 and 2023. The technology has been around since the\u00a080s, but became more accessible in the 00s with\u00a0vitrification, a flash-freezing technique. Now, celebrities such as Florence Pugh and Michaela Coel openly discuss their experiences of it, and companies such as Meta, Spotify and Goldman Sachs subsidise the procedure for employees.<\/p>\n Despite growing awareness, oocyte cryopreservation \u2013 as it\u2019s known medically \u2013 can feel\u00a0like an impossibly complex and daunting procedure. At least it did for me. It didn\u2019t help that this particular part of the fertility industry is facing criticism for its commercialisation and lack of transparency. Here are the things I wish I\u2019d known about egg freezing before embarking on the process.<\/p>\n Somewhat naively, I didn\u2019t think of freezing my eggs as a step on the road to eventual IVF. In the same way as in an IVF cycle, the ovaries are hormonally stimulated to overproduce follicles, which each contain a single egg. Once these follicles mature, the resulting eggs are retrieved under sedation, and frozen. When you\u2019re ready to use them, they\u2019re warmed and mixed with sperm before getting transferred to your womb, again as with IVF. If you\u2019re thinking about putting your eggs on ice, you should know you\u2019re signing up\u00a0for IVF if you can\u2019t get pregnant naturally.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be prepared that it may not be successful,\u201d says Prof Melanie Davies, a senior consultant gynaecologist at University College London Hospitals\u2019 reproductive medicine unit. Some\u00a0eggs may not survive freezing, let alone thawing, fertilisation or embryo transfer to the womb. The best way to approach egg freezing is as an addition to your reproductive arsenal, advises Dr\u00a0Zeynep Gurtin, a lecturer at the Institute for Women\u2019s Health at University College London (UCL):\u00a0\u201cIt\u00a0gives you another option to try to become a\u00a0parent using your own genetic material, but in no\u00a0way does it guarantee that will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n You can look for UK clinics on the HFEA website and the Seen fertility advice website. Seen CEO Kayleigh Hartigan recommends brainstorming what\u2019s most important to you: do you want a bigger clinic that sees a lot of clients but may feel slightly impersonal, or would you prefer a smaller one with a more hands-on approach? \u201cHave a call with the clinic to figure out if they\u2019re your people and you like them.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to find egg freezing success rates because the procedure is relatively new. The best way to gauge a clinic is its live birth per embryo transfer rates. You can see if this compares favourably against the national average by searching for the clinic on the HFEA website. Watch out for clinics that engage in \u201coverselling, talking about things like guarantees and \u2018you\u2019ll regret this if you don\u2019t\u2019 messaging \u2013 to me, that\u2019s a massive red flag\u201d, says Gurtin.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Kellie French\/The Guardian<\/p>\n My egg freezing process ended up taking place over two months as my initial cycle had to be abandoned because I wasn\u2019t responding to ovarian stimulation. Expect to spend roughly two weeks on a\u00a0single cycle. You\u2019ll inject yourself with hormones once or twice a\u00a0day for around eight to 11 days. Typically, this kicks off on the first or second day of your period, which means your start date is somewhat at the mercy of your menstrual cycle \u2013 this is important to note if you\u2019re planning your egg freezing cycles around work or trips abroad.<\/p>\n In order to monitor follicle growth, you\u2019ll be booked in for regular scans where an ultrasound probe is inserted into your vagina. I ended up missing work in order to make my appointments, though many clinics do offer appointments outside normal work hours. That\u2019s why finding a clinic near your home or workplace is important: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be travelling for an hour,\u201d says Matilda Hay, a film-maker who documented egg freezers before undergoing the procedure herself. Both Hay and I\u00a0ended up visiting our clinics around four times over\u00a011 days. At the very least, you\u2019ll also have to take a\u00a0day off to recover from sedation during the egg retrieval operation.<\/p>\n Most women, myself included, are surprised by how\u00a0quickly you acclimatise to injecting yourself. \u201cMost fertility injections are subcutaneous \u2013 they go in the fat under the skin and are short needles,\u201d says Wael Saab, a fertility consultant and clinical director at the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health in London. You inject yourself in your lower belly \u2013 it\u2019s not pleasant, but it\u2019s less painful than intramuscular injections such as those used for vaccinations.<\/p>\n Injections should be administered at the same time every day, but if you\u2019re off by an hour or a couple of hours \u201cit shouldn\u2019t make a huge difference\u201d, says Saab. But missing one injection completely could jeopardise the cycle. His advice is to immediately contact your clinic if this happens. You can also take your medication out with you. \u201cSomeone from my project wanted to go on a hike, and she put her medication into a Thermos flask with an ice pack,\u201d says Hay, who used a Chilly\u2019s bottle in a similar way.<\/p>\n According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, there is \u201cinsufficient data\u201d on the optimal age for egg freezing. Nevertheless, it does say that live birthrates are higher among younger women. \u201cIt\u2019s not that your fertility falls off a cliff <\/strong>when you hit 35,\u201d says Gurtin. \u201cMany women naturally conceive in their late 30s and 40s, but we\u00a0know that egg freezing is likely to be more successful if the eggs are of better quality, and that\u00a0quality is primarily related to age.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n I was definitely overconfident about only needing a\u00a0single round of egg freezing \u2013 I was 36 and only got six eggs, which means my chances of conceiving are relatively low. Research varies, but one study estimates that 35- to 37-year-olds will need to freeze 15 eggs to have a 70% chance of a single live birth. Another estimates that a 37-year-old would need 20\u00a0frozen eggs to have a 75% likelihood. But this isn\u2019t just a \u201cnumbers game\u201d, according to Joyce Harper, professor of reproductive science at UCL. \u201cFemale fertility is about the quantity and quality of your eggs and about your womb,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can have all the eggs you want and not get pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n All the medical experts stressed that a healthy lifestyle \u2013 a balanced diet and getting enough sleep and exercise \u2013 is more important than expensive supplements. \u201cThe main thing is to avoid poisoning yourself with cigarettes and recreational drugs\u201d, along with alcohol and vaping, says Davies. If you do want to invest in supplements, Saab suggests vitamin D, folic acid and coenzyme Q10: \u201cI advise my patients to\u00a0start taking them as soon as I see them and to continue throughout the treatment.\u201d You should also come off the pill before your egg freezing cycle. \u201cYou will have a better response [and get more eggs] if you\u2019re not taking hormonal contraception,\u201d Davies says. The same goes for those taking testosterone as part of gender-affirming hormone therapy.<\/p>\n According to the HFEA, egg freezing and thawing costs between \u00a37,000 and \u00a38,000. But it\u2019s easy to spend more \u2013 Luzia Bruckamp, an Oxford-based PhD student who blogged about her egg freezing journey, ended up paying \u00a36,700 for her first round. She was initially quoted a much lower price on the phone, and advises getting final quotes for everything by email.<\/p>\n Many clinics will quote an initial price that may not include blood tests or scans. You\u2019ll also be given a broad price range for medication \u2013 somewhere between \u00a3500 and \u00a31,500. That\u2019s because these vary depending on the individual, so it\u2019s best to build a\u00a0financial buffer into your budget.<\/p>\n As a gym bunny, I was gutted at having to cut out heavy weightlifting during my egg freezing cycle. Intense and high-impact workouts are discouraged to mitigate the risk of ovarian torsion, in which an ovary twists on its supporting structures, cutting off its blood supply. This is a rare complication, though. Egg freezing is mostly very safe, though some experience mild side-effects from the injections and after egg collection, such as fatigue, bloating or mood swings.<\/p>\n On the day of egg collection, I was sedated and my\u00a0eggs were drained out of their follicles with a\u00a0thin needle. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t normally take more than\u00a0about 30 minutes,\u201d says Harper. As with any\u00a0surgical operation, there is a risk of infection and complications, but you\u2019ll normally go home a\u00a0few hours later. You can take over-the-counter painkillers if you need them, and you\u2019ll find out how\u00a0many eggs were collected on the day.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be surprised if this all sparks some deep existential questions about your relationship status\u00a0and future. \u201cThere are a lot of emotions like, \u2018I\u2019m doing this on my own because I haven\u2019t found my person,\u2019\u201d says Michelle, a Londoner who froze her eggs in 2022. Talk to other egg freezers and build\u00a0a\u00a0support network, even if it\u2019s just a parent or\u00a0a\u00a0few sympathetic friends. Facebook groups such\u00a0as\u00a0the\u00a0Egg Freezing Support Community and\u00a0Egg\u00a0Freezing Support (UK) can also be useful sources of\u00a0connection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first told my mother I was freezing my eggs, she asked: \u201cSo my grandchildren are going to be stored next to some H\u00e4agen-Dazs?\u201d (Very funny, Mum.) I\u2019m one of an increasing number of women in the UK who have chosen to put their eggs on ice in order to preserve their fertility, although<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[11786,3997,3653,4805],"class_list":{"0":"post-33967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-decided","9":"tag-eggs","10":"tag-freeze","11":"tag-pregnancy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Think of egg freezing as the first half of IVF<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A frozen egg doesn\u2019t guarantee a child<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Do your research to find the best clinic<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Schedule more time for it than you think<\/strong><\/h2>\n
You\u2019ll have to juggle scans around work<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The injections are surprisingly fine<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t panic if you\u2019re late for a jab<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Age plays a bigger role than you think<\/strong><\/h2>\n
You may have to do more than one round<\/strong><\/h2>\n
You don\u2019t need to go wild on supplements<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Watch out for extra costs and medication<\/strong><\/h2>\n
You won\u2019t be able to hit the gym hard<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Egg retrieval is less scary than it sounds<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Feeling emotional <\/strong>isn\u2019t uncommon<\/strong><\/h2>\n