Egg freezing

[Banjjoo3]

Can anyone tell me a little more about egg freezing and what the rough cost of this is, that I should expect? Also how many eggs can you expect, how long can they last, what the benefits are etc.

My partner and I have been TTC for just under 2 years. I am 36 years old. We have our wedding planned for March but over the weekend he started voicing concerns, I don’t know whether it’s pre-wedding nerves or if I should prepare myself for the beginning of the end, either way I don’t want to give up the dream of having a baby in the future. I thought if I froze my eggs then it might give me more options at my age but just don’t know what to do. The clinic that I had enquired about IVF treatments with have quoted £7000 just to freeze eggs, which is more than IVF so I’m a little shocked as it seemed a lot, but is that the norm?

Trying to remain strong and positive, but what a kick in an already down rib cage!

Care quote just over £4,000.
The £7,000 is for their ‘egg safe’ package which is up to 20 eggs from 4 separate cycles but you have to be under 36 and the medication is an additional cost.

@Banjjoo3 You should speak with any clinic you're looking at about the thaw survival rates - from my understanding, embryos have a much better survival rate than eggs, so you might want to consider if you are your partner wish to freeze embryos rather than freeze eggs.

No one will be able to predict exactly how many eggs you'll get - there are so many individual factors invovled. A clinic should do some initial testing (AMH for example) to have some idea, but no one can tell you how well you will respond to medication.

As others have said there is no way to know how you respond to meds but that's probably why Care offer the 20 egg package - you need a lot more eggs if you are freezing then if you were doing full ivf because eggs just don't respond well to freeze and thaw and have a high loss rate

It is very expensive, and most clinics seems to recommend at least cycles and you can sometimes get a deal for this. I'd say about 5000 roughly for one cycle sounds about right unfortunately, and the drugs are often extra at about 1-2000. its certainly similar to what I'm paying. I'd check the HEFA website for clinics and reviews and success rates.

I'm currently freezing my eggs for ICSI and day 10 I was told that I had 30 follicles but some of these are small and so won't have eggs. I was told by my clinic that they expect roughly 70% of the follicles to have eggs for collection but its very variable between people and of course it depends on your antral count too and ovarian reserve to get a baseline for what to expect. It varies quite a bit by age so the earlier the better. I've seen widely varying accounts of whats a 'good' egg count from 6-10 to 25 for under 35 years.

As above it really depends on the individual. As a first step ovarian reserve will give you a good starting point but I think its universally agreed that after 35yrs the reserve starts dipping quite a bit so the sooner the better.

On the HEFA website you can look at the success rate for egg freezing for each clinic per age which could give you a rough idea of averages.

Good luck!

Also current guideline state you can only keep the eggs for 10 years in the UK, but as far as I'm aware they can be kept for 50 years in some cases. And I would go for more than one cycle too, as above I was told at least 20 eggs is the aim for a good chance of live birth at the end.

@Banjjoo3 god no! That's outrageous! that's more than my quote for IVF! Come on! I am sure that in my clinic is cheaper (much cheaper) than that! I'm paying 4k for IVF and sperm... I will pm you with some information

Hi @Banjjoo3 I'm going through an attempt of egg freezing myself (had one cycle which went through to egg collection but no eggs collected and a few abadoned cycles). I'm afraid the figures sound about right according to my research. I've got diminished ovarian reserve so mine is a lot more of a gamble too which is depressing but what can you do but try...!
Happy to answer any questions you have. My first cycle/s were at the London Womens Clinic but I wasn't very impressed with them and their treatment (various issues which may have led to 0 eggs collected, although my DOR means I was only going in with 4/5 follicles looking good anyway). However if you have a good AMH/AFC then they may be a decent option - they seem to be ok with bog standard egg freezing situations. I have now moved over to Create and doing natural modified cycle - so aiming to only get 1 or 2 eggs which isn't ideal but just hoping the whole "it only takes one" might ring true.
Best of luck.

Sorry, I should have said, it might be worth going for a fertility MOT - blood test and ultrasound - to get an idea of what your fertility is like and this might help you pick a clinic - eg the Care package with guaranteeing you 20 eggs is only if you've got a decent AFC/AMH count - I wouldnt qualify for it, for example..

You can also get packages for 2,3,4 cycles with other reputable clinics that is much cheaper than doing it individually and some offer refunds if you don't need another cycle. I think it quite unusual to get a good amount of eggs (20+) from just one cycle even if young and healthy so more than one is often needed.

Agree that a ovarian reserve testing is probably a good start. For example I got two cycles for roughly 6000 including drugs for both and some storage fees included. individually that would be a few thousand more.

sorry I meant I'm aiming to get 1/2 eggs per cycle and doing 3 cycle package (then I guess may consider more if I can find the money..) Agree you'll likely need more than 1 cycle even if great ovarian reserve etc..

Thanks so much for the advice. I’m a little shocked at the prices for it but seems to be similar everywhere, bar abroad, which I would definitely consider as an option.

I have already had bloods, ultrasound etc as was already looking down the IVF route, but I haven’t had an AMH test so I’ve booked that this evening, hopefully that will give me an indication regarding what sort of results I could expect.

Sigh 😕

Hi
I am 32 years old and looking to freeze my eggs. I find the data on the HFEA very overwhelming. Can anybody recommend any good clinics?
Many thanks

@ambi123 Hi, it sort of depends a bit whereabouts you are? In London argc and crgh are well known and create has clinics around the country. Bourn hall in East anglia is another one I’ve seen mentioned. For me I looked at clinics on hefa website that had the best chances of a live birth from frozen eggs.

I’m actually from the midlands but open to travel anywhere that has the best results.

I did engage with London womens clinic but they mixed up my ultrasound results with another patients so I’m very apprehensive of going with them.

I find the hefa website really overwhelming. I wish it had a table of the success rates for each clinic

@ambi123 The HEFA website is confusing and always take each individual clinics claims of success rates with a pinch of salt. Even the best ones have roughly the same success overall when you really look into it. Egg freezing isn’t a guarantee that it’s often presented as but still glad I did it as it’s better than nothing at all! I’d spent quite a bit of time on the website researching clinics is with the best success rates of live births per age/number of eggs needed for live birth etc. and focused on those that had been established for a few years too.

I assume you want to only do egg freezing right now? Then I’d look at places that have included storage prices with the egg freezing and perhaps a two cycle package (hopefully won’t need more than that since you’re young ivf wise) as it’s likely you will need more than one round depending on your preference for one or more children. Generally as a rule most clinics say you need 20 eggs to be ‘safe’ and it’s unlikely you will get that many from one cycle even if young and healthy (for example I got 19 eggs from one cycle but 5 of these were immature so couldn’t be frozen, which is very common). I was told they were very happy that this was enough to be as confident as possible for one child and perhaps two but if I wanted two or more it would be best to do another another round of EC just to be safe. Incidentally I’m doing another round to bank some more but likely also going ahead with embryo transfer too at the same time so my sole aim atm isn’t just to freeze eggs/embryos but hopefully will get some more to freeze anyway!

I am based around London so the clinics I’ve heard good things about and most commonly mentioned on here are;
CRGH
ARGC
Lister
Create

I am sure there are many more that others could add but they are just off the top of my head. I’d also arrange some free telephone consultations to get a feel for the places and I always go with my gut feeling too, go with a clinic you have a good feeling about. Good luck!

I had my eggs frozen in 2013 for medical reasons. Although at the moment there is a 10 year limit if it's for non medical reasons, it is likely that that will be changing very soon, so I wouldn't worry too much about it - there's been temporary extensions because of Covid there's been quite a bit in the media about the limit and the fact there is no justification for it.
For OP, although embryos have a better chance, it would probably be worth freezing half or so as embryos but some as eggs - if they are embryos then your partner can refuse to let you use them in the future.
Re thawing, these days very few eggs are lost on thawing due to new freezing techniques. I only had one round of retrieving eggs, which got 24 eggs. Of these 9 are still eggs and 15 became 6 blastocysts - but that's surviving freezing, being implanted, growing over 5 days and being good enough to keep. From 15 eggs 6 blasts is quite an averagy result, but obviously numbers vary hugely, and in any event my clinic have always been clear quality is more important than quantity. There's some evidence that when fewer eggs are produced they are higher quality ones.
The stats for different clinics are always misleading anyway - some clinics won't take women over a certain age or with certain medical conditions which obviously affects the overall results, so I wouldn't focus on that too much. Most of them offer free open evenings - why not shop around and see what you like the most?

@BlueSilver23 thank you for your response - it's much appreciated. Can I ask which clinic you went ahead with for your procedure?

Hi banjoo3, I'm so sorry you've been put in this situation. I'm 36 and was put in a very similar situation a few days ago by my partner of 14 months. We were meant to be trying for a baby in June and he freaked out at last minute. Im interested in how your egg freezing journey is going/as gone?