Egg freezing for non-medical reasons, also known as social egg freezing, is an increasingly popular method for women to preserve their fertility in order to have children at a later date.
The BBC analysed the websites of the 78 fertility clinics that advertise private egg freezing in the UK.
We found 32 websites (41%) didn’t make clear a patient’s chance of successfully having a baby in the future.
Of that group, most of the websites were advertising successful thaw rates of 80-95% – a process where eggs are defrosted to be used in fertility treatments.
But these clinics did not make clear that the chances of having a baby are dramatically lower because there are multiple stages of the process before an embryo is successfully implanted, through fertility treatments such as IVF.
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government watchdog, has guidance about the information which should appear on clinic websites.
It says egg freezing is a “significant financial and emotional commitment” and patients must be “properly informed” about success rates and costs.
