Egg Freezing

Once your egg freezing treatment cycle starts, it will typically take 14 days. You will need an average of four trans-vaginal ultrasound scans during this time to monitor your ovaries.

If you are hoping to have a double cycle, you can begin the next cycle after your next menstrual bleed and it will take another approx 14 days until egg collection.

Success rates are always personal, and will depend on your age and the number of eggs that can be retrieved from your ovaries. Research in this area has shown that in order to have a successful fertility treatment in future, approx 8-10 mature eggs  will be needed. Depending on your hormones and AMH level, you may only need one round or treatment, or a second may be recommended.

We do know that women have a lower chance of having a baby from their frozen eggs when the eggs are frozen after age 35 than women who freeze them before this age. We therefore don’t recommend that women over the age of 38 freeze their eggs, however we will explore the viablity of freezing for medical reasons.

When you decide you want to use your eggs, we will arrange a consultation and prepare you for treatment. We will thaw the frozen eggs and inseminate them with sperm from your partner or a donor. We will monitor the embryos as they develop and then transfer them to your uterus in order to produce a pregnancy.

Freezing your eggs will not guarantee you a baby in future, but it will give you a very good chance. The younger you are when you freeze your eggs, the better the chance of success when you return to use them.

Success with frozen eggs – just as in IVF Treatment – will depend on the age and quality of the eggs when they were frozen. Egg freezing is still a relatively new procedure and the number of women who have come back to thaw their frozen eggs is as yet small, but the success rates for these women are good.

Because freezing is not a complete insurance, we do advise every woman to remain fertility aware. When the time is right for you, you should try for pregnancy. If you need treatment, your ‘younger’ frozen eggs may result in a better chance of having a baby that attempting to retrieve eggs at the time, which may be several years older than the eggs you have frozen.

When you undergo treatment, your eggs will be collected and stored for a fixed period of one year. After that year, you can renew storage for blocks of five years, and renew as you see fit. We are happy to keep the eggs in storage for as long as you wish and we will remain in regular contact with you. We will carry out fertility treatment with frozen eggs up to the age of 49.

There is a separate storage fee for frozen eggs after the first year. The fee is payable in advance – see our price list for further details.