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EGG FREEZING

Not ready for parenthood or facing medical treatment? Explore how egg freezing provides reassurance for the future.

What is egg freezing?

Egg freezing is a way for women to keep their fertility options open for later. It works by collecting a woman's eggs, freezing them, and storing them in case they are needed down the line for fertility treatment.  

As women age, their chances of getting pregnant naturally decrease because their eggs deteriorate in quality and quantity. By freezing eggs when they're younger and at their best, women can hang onto their fertility potential for when they're ready to start a family.  

Who is egg freezing for?

Women who haven’t gone through the menopause can freeze their eggs. To increase the chances of having a successful pregnancy from the using a frozen egg the best time to freeze eggs is in your 20s and early 30s.  

Women over the age of 35 can freeze their eggs, although the chances of future success are lower than for younger women.   

If you are considering freezing your eggs, book a consultation with one of our specialists in a clinic near you.  

Elective egg freezing

You're concerned about your fertility dropping but aren't ready to start a family or haven't found the right partner yet. It’s recommended to go through the egg freezing process before the age of 36, as quality and quantity of eggs decline and women under 35 are more likely to produce a better number of eggs. The estimated number of eggs required to give a high and realistic chance of success at a later date is 15-20 mature eggs.  
Medical egg freezing

You have a medical condition or need treatment for one that could affect your fertility, like cancer or early menopause. You can preserve fertility by storing eggs, embryos, or a mix of both. In some cases, NHS funding might be an option depending on where you live, so if this is you, we advise speaking with your doctor.   
Freezing and transitioning

If you are considering gender reassignment treatment, or if you have already begun, you might want to preserve your fertility before starting hormone therapy or undergoing surgery.    

What’s involved in egg freezing?

Step 1: Consultation and fertility tests

You’ll most likely need some fertility and health tests, these tests help us to get a full picture of your health and reproductive health – this gives us the very best chance at creating a treatment plan that works for you. 

The fertility tests will determine your ovarian reserve. You will also have some basic health checks such as your Body Mass Index (BMI) and blood pressure.  

When your test results have come back, you will have a consultation with one of our fertility doctors. They will go through your results with you, and let you know the best treatment route. Your treatment plan will be personalised to you, to give you the very best chance at success. Remember, this is also your opportunity to ask any questions you may have – it's completely normal to have questions!  

After your consultation, we’ll share with your treatment plan and a cost estimation with you via our treatment companion app, Salve, so that you can make an informed decision on what to do next.  

Our patient services team will be in touch to answer any questions and provide any additional information you might need – so don’t worry if you didn’t ask everything at your consultation. We’re here to ensure you feel prepared and confident as you begin your fertility preservation journey.  
Step 2: Preparatory testing

First off, you'll undergo testing for infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis. This step doesn't affect your ability to freeze eggs but is routine prior to any fertility treatment. It also ensures that we store your eggs appropriately.   
Step 3: Stimulation and egg retrieval

Next, the egg collection process kicks off, usually lasting two to three weeks. You'll likely take medication to boost egg production and help them mature. When the eggs are good to go, they'll be collected while you're under sedation. Egg number varies but patients under 38 typically have around 7-14 eggs collected, though this may not always be feasible for those with lower ovarian reserves. 
Step 4: Egg freezing: Vitrification

Eggs are not fertilised with sperm, like in conventional IVF, instead a cryoprotectant (freezing solution) is added to prepare and protect the eggs for freezing. They're then frozen by vitrification (rapid freezing) and stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.  
Step 5: Storage

Under current regulations, eggs can be stored for future treatment for up to 55 years from the initial storage date. However, to keep storage legally valid, you must renew your consent every 10 years. This consent renewal is essential and requires your signature on the appropriate form.  

Failure to renew your consent for storage means your eggs will be taken out of storage and disposed of once they can no longer be legally kept.  

If you stored your eggs before 1 July 2022, more information can be found on the HFEA website.  

What happens when I’m ready to use my frozen eggs? 

When you are ready to start your family, if you need them, you can use your frozen eggs in IVF treatment, specifically ICSI (which involves injecting sperm into each egg to fertilise them). Your Care Fertility team will create a personalised treatment plan for you. Your frozen eggs are thawed in the embryology lab, using special warming solutions. They are then fertilised with sperm (either your partner’s or donor sperm) to create embryos.  

At the right time, your embryos will be transferred to your uterus in a straightforward non-surgical procedure. Your doctor will use ultrasound guidance to insert a soft catheter through the cervix and into the uterus. The embryo is passed within the catheter and into your uterus, where hopefully, it will implant. After a period of approximately 2 weeks, you will take a pregnancy test. 

How successful is egg freezing? 

Whilst around 85% of eggs that undergo the vitrification technique survive the freeze-thaw process, it’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean all these eggs go on to produce a baby. HFEA guidance states that for women under 35, the chance of having a baby from thawed eggs is around 18-30%.   

People considering egg freezing are advised by the UK regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority, to look at the success rates for people of the same age undergoing IVF with fresh eggs - as these are more reliable than results from small numbers of treatments using thawed eggs/embryos, as there are much higher numbers of fresh embryo transfers each year compared to egg freezing.  

Looking at success rates from these also indicates the clinic’s experience and success rates with egg freezing.  

View our treatment success rates

How much does Egg Freezing cost?

  • EggFreeze-AI
  • EggSafe-AI

EggFreeze-AI - a collection and freezing of eggs for 1 cycle: £4,695*

Eggfreeze-AI is most cost-effective fertility preservation option for patients and is better suited to younger patients with a good ovarian reserve. The cost includes nurse planning, monitoring scans, in-treatment blood tests, egg collection with conscious sedation or local anaesthetic, egg freezing and counselling support.  

*The costs of consultation, pre-treatment screening tests, medication, and ongoing storage are not included. 

EggSafe-AI – a collection of up to 20 eggs gathered over up to 4 cycles: £7,760*

Eggsafe-AI is designed to maximise your chances of future success, by ensuring that you have sufficient eggs to support future fertility treatment. The cost includes nurse planning, monitoring scans, in-treatment blood tests, up to 4 egg collections with conscious sedation or local anaesthetic, egg freezing, counselling support and storage of eggs for two years. The costs of consultation and pre-treatment screening tests are not included.  

To be eligible for Eggsafe AI:   

  • Under 36 years of age 
  • Have a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or less 
  • Have an antral follicle count (AFC) of over 14 (female fertility test) 

Storage of frozen eggs - annual charge: £380 a year  

Storage of frozen eggs - monthly direct debit: £31.67 per month  

*Please note: Medication costs are not included. 

It’s complicated to provide a precise estimate of likely medication costs. However, they can range from £1,061 to £1,746. 79% of patients freezing eggs have a medication cost between £1,061 to £1,404. Please be reassured that we will tell you the exact cost of the medicines we recommend before you decide to start treatment. 

Why freeze your eggs with Care Fertility? 

At Care Fertility, we use the latest AI technology to enhance our egg freezing procedures, to give our patients the best chances of success. We use an innovative proprietary image analysis tool called VIOLET™, a non-invasive assessment of an individual's egg quality and potential after collection but before freezing.   

Care Fertility's AI assessment of eggs provides patients with invaluable insights into their future chances of success. We also use these insights to help guide us in making the best decision about further egg retrieval.   

We've rigorously tested and validated VIOLET™, publishing peer-reviewed scientific papers before we introduced to all our patients. We are confident that VIOLET™ gives us a competitive advantage, as it means we can rapidly predict the likelihood of embryo development once fertilised with 63% accuracy – which is up to 20% more accurate than a trained senior embryologist on their own.   

Patients opting to freeze their eggs with Care Fertility receive personalised reports detailing their egg quality and potential, complete with images of their eggs, gaining newfound transparency. While some patients may choose not to receive the report, our dedicated team will discuss individual preferences and ensure personalised care throughout the process.  

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