“THE PANDEMIC STOLE TIME, BUT FREEZING MY EGGS GAVE IT BACK”

Nikki Clare underwent three cycles of egg-freezing last year

I’d always naively assumed that the only thing stopping me from having children was finding the right partner. But then, at the age of 34, I discovered that my egg count was very low. It was late 2019 and I’d come out of a long-term relationship at the start of the year. After calling my mum as soon as I stepped out of the clinic, I decided, then and there, that I was going to freeze my eggs. I booked three cycles – enough to extract the 20 to 24 eggs they recommend to give a good chance of having a baby. I paid over £15,000 in total – costly for an insurance policy that might not even pay out.

During my first cycle, I had to inject myself with medication to stimulate my ovarian follicles, and once enough had grown, I then administered a “trigger” injection before going into the clinic for the egg retrieval. Waiting to hear how many eggs had been extracted was agony. I’d heard stories of women getting 25, so when the doctors told me that I had six, I felt deflated, but empowered. Six was better than none. In the first week of March, I had my second cycle, which brought nine eggs, and I stood a great chance of getting to 20 in my last cycle.

But then lockdown hit. Not only was I left uncertain about when I’d be able to complete my third cycle, but I was also unable to date. My hope is to have children with a partner and never have to use my frozen eggs, and suddenly neither was possible. The clock seemed to tick faster than ever.

My clinic reopened in July, but it wasn’t until October that I finally had my last cycle. While I grieve for the time I haven’t been able to look for a partner, taking control has been my silver lining. There’s no guarantee my eggs will produce a baby, but where the pandemic stole time, freezing my eggs has given a bit of it back.