What does it contain?
An preliminary analysis with a fertility specialist will seemingly contain blood checks, a pelvic ultrasound scan and a dialogue of your medical historical past.
In the event you proceed with egg freezing, the primary stage of the method, referred to as ‘ovarian stimulation’, will begin.
This entails hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries to provide a number of eggs quite than the one egg that’s sometimes and naturally launched every month.
This therapy entails a number of visits to the fertility clinic over a number of weeks, together with your blood hormone ranges and ovaries commonly monitored.
When the time is true for them to return out, a medical skilled will use an ultrasound guided needle and, with a suction system, take away the eggs — seven to 14, on common, for girls aged underneath 38 — from the ovarian follicles.
The extracted eggs will probably be transported into the laboratory, evaluated, and flash-frozen by an embryologist — utilizing an ultra-rapid process referred to as vitrification — after which sometimes positioned right into a flask containing liquid nitrogen.
Storage at very chilly temperatures, beneath -150C (-238F), permits the eggs to stay viable to be used at a later date.
If you need to use them, the eggs will probably be thawed and people who have survived intact will probably be injected together with your associate’s or donor’s sperm.
How lengthy can eggs be saved?
Girls within the UK can now retailer their frozen eggs for as much as 55 years.
This rule, which additionally applies to sperm and embryos, has been in place since July 2022, when the period elevated from the earlier 10-year restrict.
Nevertheless, girls might want to renew their consent for a clinic storing their eggs each 10 years.
And those that frozen their eggs earlier than July 2022 and need them to be saved for longer than 10 years must contact their clinic to see whether it is potential.
How a lot does it price?
The whole processes from freezing eggs to thawing within the UK prices £7,000 to £8,000, on common.
Whereas having your eggs collected and frozen will clock up a invoice of round £3,350, this is only one a part of the method.
Hormonal treatment that must be taken to stimulate egg manufacturing earlier than the process prices roughly £500-£1,500 on high of that.
Storage prices are additional and fluctuate between clinics however are usually between £125 and £350 per 12 months, in accordance with HFEA and Royal School of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Thawing eggs and transferring them to the womb prices a mean of £2,500.
Which clinics supply egg freezing?
The HFEA is answerable for licensing and inspecting UK fertility clinics, they usually publish scores for every fertility clinic inspected.
Accessible licensed UK clinics might be discovered on the HFEA web site by getting into a postcode.
How secure is the process?
In keeping with the HFEA, IVF is ‘largely very secure’.
Some girls nevertheless do expertise unwanted effects from their fertility medicine.
These are normally delicate, however in excessive circumstances girls can develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a probably severe complication of fertility therapy.
It could actually vary from delicate to extreme, the Royal School of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say.
Gentle OHSS is widespread and normally will get higher with time. Extra extreme circumstances require specialist care and hospital admission.
Key signs of OHSS to pay attention to embody delicate belly swelling, discomfort and nausea in delicate circumstances. Extreme OHSS indicators contain excessive thirst and dehydration. A severe, however uncommon, complication can be formation of a blood clot – thrombosis – within the legs or lungs.
How profitable is it?
Egg freezing needs to be thought of an insurance coverage coverage quite than a assure, in accordance with embryologists.
Success charges are largely depending on the lady’s age when they’re frozen, however specialists say what additionally issues is the entire variety of eggs obtainable to be used.
Similar to when utilising recent eggs, not each egg will fertilise, not each fertilised egg will lead to a viable embryo, and never each viable embryo will result in a stay beginning.
One US research discovered that the possibility of a stay beginning amongst girls utilizing their very own frozen eggs was 39 per cent total.
This rose to 51 per cent amongst those that had been youthful than 38 after they froze their eggs.
