Experts say egg freezing trend on rise

INCREASING numbers of women are putting motherhood on ice, with new data from Australia’s first dedicated egg freezing clinic revealing there has been an almost 80 per cent increase in the number of patients accessing its services over two years.

Genea Horizon reported a 78 per cent rise in women accessing the procedure – allowing them to freeze unfertilised eggs which can be used to try to conceive at a later date – during the 2017 and 2018 calendar years.

Data from the clinic also reveals there has been a drop in the average age of patients getting their eggs frozen.

In 2015, the average age of women accessing “social” egg freezing was 38 years old, whereas in 2018, the average age was 36.

Social egg freezing refers to the storing of eggs for social reasons – such as women wanting to delay having a baby until the time is right – and differs to medical egg freezing, which is mostly done for women before they have cancer treatment which can affect their fertility.

Genea fertility specialist Dr Cheryl Phua, who is also an obstetrician and gynaecologist, said egg freezing has gained traction during the last five years due to advances in technology and lessening stigma.

“Patients say they know this is an insurance policy because there is no guarantee of pregnancy with egg freezing but by embarking on this journey … they actually feel very empowered to take steps towards mitigating the risks of age-related decline in fertility,” she said.

“While there’s no magic number in terms of how many eggs we need to get frozen to increase the chances of a pregnancy, we know younger women may require fewer eggs to achieve a pregnancy and that’s one of the pros of doing it.”

Sydney insurance broker Lauren Wilson, 38, had her eggs frozen two years ago because she wanted to “take the pressure off everything”.

“I’d just started seeing somebody but I wasn’t prepared to rush decisions with that person,” she said.

“By freezing my eggs I put myself in a position where I’ve done everything I can now so if I don’t have children, I don’t have regrets anymore.”

The first egg freezing cycle with Genea costs $4534 and each subsequent cycle costs $3934.

There is also an additional cost of $1500 per cycle for medications used during treatment to stimulate the growth of follicles in the ovaries.