Freeze eggs in early 20s to boost chances of having baby, women told
WOMEN who want to delay motherhood have the best chance if they freeze their eggs in their early 20s, experts say.
The vast majority of women who go through the procedure do so in their late 30s – by which time they have very little chance of success.
Specialists are increasingly concerned that fertility clinics encourage women to delay motherhood for too long by offering them the safety net of egg freezing. The longer they wait, the lower the chance of being able to start a family – yet two-thirds of women who freeze their eggs in Britain do not do so until they are over the age of 35.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said women who leave it too late will struggle to have a baby.
Spokesman Professor Adam Balen, a consultant in reproductive medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: ‘Evidence suggests the best time to freeze eggs is in a woman’s early 20s and certainly under the age of 37 … It is extremely important to provide accurate and balanced information about fertility and how it changes with increasing age.’
He said clinics must give women a full picture about their chances of starting a family.
Experts are worried young women do ‘not feel the threat of infertility’ – partly because they are given the false hope of freezing their eggs later. But by the time they get round to it, fertility treatment is a ‘last-ditch’ effort with diminishing chances of success.
Rita Ora is one woman who has bucked the trend. The pop singer, 27, had her eggs frozen following a recommendation from her GP. ‘I have always wanted a big family and my doctor asked me “I think you should freeze your eggs” when I was in my early 20s,’ said Miss Ora, who was born in Kosovo before moving to London when she was one. ‘He said you are healthiest now, why not put them away and then you never have to worry about it again.’
Dr Timothy Bracewell-Milnes from Imperial College London, writing in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology with colleagues from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said: ‘Egg freezing is indirectly encouraging women to have children at an advanced maternal age, which carries with it significantly increased risk of medical complications in pregnancy.
‘This is especially relevant to women freezing their eggs when they are already in their late 30s.’
Egg freezing is booming in Britain, with 1,173 women opting to store their eggs in 2016 – nearly double the figure from 2014.
Fertility doctors report that many women put off having a family to pursue their career. They then realise in their late 30s that they have no partner, and will soon become too old to conceive naturally, so freeze their eggs to preserve their fertility.
But despite the popularity of the technology, the chance of success is low – with 85 per cent of eggs not even surviving the freezing process. And it gets worse with age, with 8.2 per cent of frozen eggs resulting in a baby for under-35s, and just 3.3 per cent for older women.
Women in this age bracket need 30 frozen eggs on average to become pregnant. Dr Bracewell-Milnes and his team said: ‘They would therefore require on average three cycles of stimulation, at a cost of around £15,000. This does not include the annual storage fee of £200 to £400 or the cost of fertility treatment.’
This means a woman freezing her eggs for five years could expect to spend £25,000 on treatment before she has even become pregnant.
However, Dr Jara Ben Nagi from the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health in London, writing in the same journal, said freezing ‘extends the window of opportunity for women to find a partner and offers hope where their “biological clock” would run out of time’.