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Women in their late 30s and in their 40s are being given false hope that freezing their eggs gives them a good chance of having children, according to leading fertility experts.
The concerns come as thousands of women are believed to be considering “social freezing” – having eggs frozen for non-medical reasons as they grapple with declining fertility that could wreck any hope of a family later in life.
Some women going through the freezing, thawing and implantation process can pay as much as £15,000, with clinics claiming up to a 60% pregnancy rate. But a growing number of experts are becoming concerned that the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, isn’t doing enough to make it clear to women what their chances are of success really are.
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Melanie Davies, an NHS fertility expert at University College London hospital, said: “10 years ago this was an experimental treatment, but as technology has advanced, egg freezing has now become routine. But women are still in the dark on success rates – over the next two years UK data should finally be coming out. Clinics and the regulator should make this available to help women make informed decisions.”
Soaring numbers of women are having eggs frozen for “social” reasons, some into their 40s. The number of eggs frozen in fertility clinics a year has almost tripled in recent years, according to latest figures from the HFEA. In 2008 there were 2,476 eggs frozen, rising to 7,047 in 2013, with the figure expected to have shot up since.
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