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Egg freezing
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EGG FREEZING AT HCA UK
Take control of your fertility
The benefits of egg freezing is that it helps to preserve and prolong your fertility and increase your chances of having a successful pregnancy in the future. Our teams at The Lister Hospital, Lister Fertility Clinic, and Lister Fertility Clinic at The Portland Hospital have a long history of success with egg freezing, and we’re here to help.
We work with leading fertility specialists across a range of medical fields, including gynaecology and urology. That means you’ll be supported by a whole team of experts, from consultants, embryologists and sonographers to counsellors and experienced fertility-trained nurse practitioners.
We work with leading fertility specialists across a range of medical fields, including gynaecology and urology. That means you’ll be supported by a whole team of experts, from consultants, embryologists and sonographers to counsellors and experienced fertility-trained nurse practitioners.
As women, our fertility naturally declines with age as the number and quality of our eggs drops.1,3 This makes it harder to get pregnant and have a successful pregnancy as we get older.
These days more women than ever are choosing to delay parenthood and the reasons are wide-ranging.1,4 Some may be looking to build the foundations for a successful career, others may not have found the right partner, some women could be facing complex medical procedures that could affect their fertility.
Whatever the reason, egg freezing allows you to store your eggs earlier, while they’re at a quality that will give you the best possible chance of success at a later date.
These days more women than ever are choosing to delay parenthood and the reasons are wide-ranging.1,4 Some may be looking to build the foundations for a successful career, others may not have found the right partner, some women could be facing complex medical procedures that could affect their fertility.
Whatever the reason, egg freezing allows you to store your eggs earlier, while they’re at a quality that will give you the best possible chance of success at a later date.
Data suggests that frozen eggs have a similar success rate to fresh eggs in leading to pregnancy.1,6,7 Long-term data has also shown no increase in pregnancy risks from using frozen eggs.1
Since adopting the vitrification technique in October 2009, we’ve performed more than 2,500 cycles of social egg freezing at the Lister Fertility Clinic.
The table below outlines our success (to Jan 2023) using this technique with eggs following a planned egg freeze. It also shows the most recent national data which, at the time of writing, makes no distinction between slow-frozen eggs and vitrified eggs.
Looking at the age at which women froze their eggs, the pregnancy success rates are:
- 40% for those under the age of 35
- 30% for those aged between 35 and 40
- 16% for those over 40
|
Type of Rate |
Lister Vitrification Data |
Most recent HFEA Data |
|
Pregnancy Rate / Thaw cycle |
43.8% (21/48) |
- |
|
Ongoing Pregnancy Rate / Thaw cycle |
31.5% (23/73) |
13.9% |
|
Pregnancy Rate / Embryo Transfer |
53.3% (21/36) |
22.2% |
|
Ongoing Pregnancy Rate / Embryo Transfer |
44.2% (23/52) |
- |
The cost of one egg freezing cycle is £3,790.
This fee includes:
- All scans
- All nursing and medical input
- Hospital admission and medical costs of the egg collection procedure
- Preparation and freezing of the eggs, and storage for one year
This fee does not include the cost of the hormone injections you’ll need during the egg freezing process. The cost of these for each cycle will depend on your age and your egg reserve, but is usually around £1,200.
We also have a three-cycle package available at £9,650, with an additional small storage fee each year. Many people find they need more than one cycle to have enough eggs to give a reasonable chance of success.
22,000+
babies born with us
17
dedicated fertility consultants
35+
years with a history of success
Next-day appointments
See a specialist in as little as 24 hours
State-of-the-art diagnostics
With results in as little as 48 hours
Multidisciplinary teams
Expert treatment with specialist care for complex care
The egg-freezing process
What to expect
From the moment you step through the door, until the time you’re ready to leave, we want you to feel as comfortable as possible with us, every step of the way.
Part of that is making sure you’re prepared and informed with our guide to each stage of the egg-freezing process.
If you have any questions that aren’t covered here, or in the FAQ section below, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can also download our step-by-step explanation on the egg freezing process here.
01
Initial consultation
You’ll have a named doctor for your initial consultation and any planning for your treatment. They’ll discuss your treatment options with you and come up with a treatment plan you’re happy with.
02
Preparing for egg freezing
You’ll start with daily hormone injections for around two weeks, to stimulate your ovaries to produce multiple follicles, each of which may produce an egg. During this time, you’ll also have blood tests and ultrasound scans of your pelvis to monitor the number and size of the follicles.
Then, when one or more follicles reach a certain size, (usually 18mm or more), you’ll have what’s called a trigger injection – this is an injection of hormones to mature the eggs before collection.
03
Collection and egg freezing
Collection itself is a minor procedure during which a needle, guided by ultrasound, is inserted to collect the eggs. The procedure is performed under anaesthesia or sedation, so you won’t feel any pain.
After collection, the mature eggs are selected for cryopreservation (freezing). We use a technique known as vitrification, which uses a rapid freezing process to minimise any potential damage to the egg.
After collection, the mature eggs are selected for cryopreservation (freezing). We use a technique known as vitrification, which uses a rapid freezing process to minimise any potential damage to the egg.
*In some cases, the doctor may trigger at less than 18mm. This will be a decision based on your individual needs and form part of your personalised treatment plan.
Where can I access egg freezing services?
Our egg freezing services are located in London and Buckinghamshire. Across hospitals and treatment centres, you’ll have access to dozens of industry-leading fertility experts who can help, from initial consultation through to treatment and next steps.
Lister Fertility Clinic
Chelsea Bridge Road SW1W 8RH London
Lister Fertility Clinic at The Portland Hospital
First Floor 215 Great Portland Street W1W 5PN London
Lister Fertility Clinic at The Beaconsfield Clinic
Little Hall Barn Windsor End, Beaconsfield HP9 2JW Buckinghamshire
Lister Fertility Clinic at The Shard
The Shard Outpatients St Thomas Street SE1 9BS London
Accessing private health care
Self-pay
You don’t need health insurance to be seen quickly. If you’re looking for treatment and don’t want to wait, all of our fertility treatments can be paid for as and when you need them.
And to give you peace of mind from the start, we’ll provide you with a clear and transparent quote outlining exactly what’s included in your self-pay package.
Egg freezing FAQs
Our services are regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), who are responsible for fertility treatment and research across the UK. As well as licensing clinics and monitoring their practices, HFEA sets standards to ensure patient safety and high-quality care.
Our inspection rating for both The Lister Fertility Clinic and Lister Fertility Clinic at The Portland Hospital is 5/5. You can see the full reports for yourself here and here.
Our inspection rating for both The Lister Fertility Clinic and Lister Fertility Clinic at The Portland Hospital is 5/5. You can see the full reports for yourself here and here.
If you’d like to meet our team and find out more about the egg freezing process, then our open evenings give you the chance to do just that.
Available both online and in-person, these events are designed to help those of you actively thinking about your fertility treatment options. We’ll go through the egg freezing options available at the clinic and give an overview of the process itself. You’ll also have the chance to ask questions to be answered live by our team of specialists.
You can also visit this blog, in which Mr Tim Bracewell-Milnes, consultant gynaecologist and subspecialist in reproductive medicine and surgery at the Lister Fertility Clinic, gives valuable advice on preparing for egg freezing and what to expect during the process. He also explains what might happen if you have certain gynaecological conditions, and how your age can affect the outcome.
We recommend that women aim to have at least 20 eggs in storage. As of March 2024, 1 in every 19 eggs thawed at our clinic has resulted in a pregnancy, and 1 in 22 a live birth or ongoing pregnancy.
Breaking this down by age:
- 1 in 18 eggs frozen when a woman is under 35 has resulted in a live birth/ongoing pregnancy
- 1 in 25 eggs frozen between the ages of 35 and 40 has resulted in a live birth/ongoing pregnancy
- More are required over 40 to achieve a live birth/ongoing pregnancy
While we advise women to have at least 20 eggs frozen, there is no guarantee of success with any number of eggs. Other factors such as egg quality are also relevant. Some women may achieve success with only a few eggs, while others may be unsuccessful with over 20.
Typically, around 7 to 14 eggs may be collected during one cycle. But this will be very different for different women.8 This means to maximise your chances of success, you may need more than one egg freezing cycle. We offer egg freezing packages if you’re considering this.
The law allows you to store your eggs for any period up to a maximum of 55 years.9 We’ll send you a letter every year so you can confirm whether you want to continue storing them.
We usually recommend early to mid-30s as an ideal age to freeze your eggs if you have no imminent plans to start trying for a baby.
However, there are a number of factors to weigh up when considering what’s best for you.
The number and quality of your eggs is higher the younger you are.1,3 But it’s not as simple a case of “the sooner the better” when it comes to freezing your eggs. You’ll need to think about the physical, emotional and financial burden of treatment too. It’s a delicate balance between not freezing eggs too early or too late.
While freezing your eggs early may give you peace of mind for your future fertility, there’s no guarantee of success. It’s important not to delay trying to conceive naturally, just because you have eggs frozen.
Freezing eggs when you’re in your early to mid-30s means we can preserve your eggs before the number and quality start to significantly diminish. Many women still choose to freeze their eggs after the age of 35. It just means that you will need a greater number of eggs to have the same chance of success. Your overall chance of future pregnancy will also be lower.
The length of time your eggs are frozen for makes no difference to the future outcome of treatment.1,7 Once your eggs are stored, the success rate is "locked-in" at the age they were when frozen.
So, whether you’re freezing them two or 10 years before you want to have children, the outcome would be similar. The key factor is the age at which you freeze them.
No, but this is a common misconception. Assisted reproductive techniques like egg freezing and IVF don’t use up any more of your egg follicles than a natural menstrual cycle. They just allow more of the follicles to grow and develop eggs.2
In a natural menstrual cycle, several follicles begin to grow in your ovary every month, but most die away, as your body normally only allows one to mature and release an egg.
In the egg freezing process, the hormone injections you take stimulate your ovaries so that more of these follicles mature. This allows as many eggs as possible to be collected. The process doesn’t use any more follicles than were already there. So it doesn’t affect your fertility or cause an earlier menopause.
One consequence of egg freezing is that some people may have a false sense of security about their future fertility. This can lead to them delaying trying for a baby naturally, reducing their overall chance of a successful pregnancy.
- Cascante SD, Berkeley AS, Licciardi F, et al. Planned oocyte cryopreservation: the state of the ART. Reprod Biomed Online 2023;47(6):103367. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.103367. Available from: https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(23)00466-2/fulltext, accessed 11 March 2024.
- Han E, Seifer DB. Oocyte cryopreservation for medical and planned indications: a practical guide and overview. J Clin Med 2023;12(10):3542. doi: 10.3390/jcm12103542. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10218997/, accessed 11 March 2024.
- van Noord-Zaadstra BM, Looman CW, Alsbach H, et al. Delaying childbearing: effect of age on fecundity and outcome of pregnancy. BMJ 1991;302(6789):1361-5. doi: 10.1136/bmj.302.6789.1361.
- Birth characteristics in England and Wales: 2021. Office for National Statistics. 2023. Available from: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2021, accessed 11 March 2024.
- Jain M, Singh M. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) techniques. StatPearls Publishing. 2023. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576409/, accessed 11 March 2024.
- Bosch E, De Vos M, Humaidan P. The future of cryopreservation in Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2020;11:67. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.00067. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7044122/, accessed 11 March 2024.
- Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Evidence-based outcomes after oocyte cryopreservation for donor oocyte in vitro fertilization and planned oocyte cryopreservation: a guideline. Fertil Steril 2021;116(1):36-47. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2021.02.024. Available from: https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(21)00142-4/fulltext, accessed 11 March 2024.
- Egg freezing. Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. n.d. Available from: https://www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/fertility-preservation/egg-freezing/, accessed 12 March 2024.
- Gamete (egg, sperm) and embryo storage limits: response to consultation. Department of Health & Social Care. 2021. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/egg-sperm-and-embryo-storage-limits/outcome/gamete-egg-sperm-and-embryo-storage-limits-response-to-consultation, accessed 12 March 2024.
Our patients’ fertility stories
Sophia's story
Whilst unsure about motherhood, Sophia had no questions or uncertainty about her passion for filmmaking. And this is where HCA Healthcare UK’s Lister Fertility Clinic in Beaconsfield came in.
Clare’s fertility treatment
Clare and her husband Derek thought they might never have children, until joining the egg-sharing programme at the Lister Fertility Clinic.
Alice and Aaron's fertility treatment
After being told they’d never have children, Alice and Aaron turned to the Lister Fertility Clinic. They now have a beautiful two-year-old daughter.
“I have completed two rounds of egg freezing, and one round of embryo freezing with Dr Salim as my consultant doctor. I was very worried at the start, but Dr Salim was incredibly calming and reassuring.”
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This content is intended for general information only and does not replace the need for personal advice from a qualified health professional.