Know your fertility vital statistics

Aileen Feeney, chief executive of leading patient charity Fertility Network, said: ‘Fertility Network wholeheartedly welcomes the HFEA’s report on egg freezing because it is vital that there is increased recognition about the limits of egg freezing and that health professionals and fertility clinics communicate this information clearly to prospective patients. Fertility Network is concerned that the majority of women and men are not aware that female fertility is already falling by the time a woman is 28 and plummets at 35; that’s why if women are considering egg freezing, doing so in your 20s or early 30s offers a greater chance of future success. Every woman should know her fertility vital statistics 28:35:42. By 28, female fertility has already begun to fall; 35 female fertility plummets; 42 your chance of becoming a biological other is vanishingly small. Beyond 45, IVF has a 98 per cent failure rate; women should not be given false hope about their chances of success in their mid to late forties using their own eggs.’

‘The optimum time, biologically speaking, for a woman to freeze her eggs is before female fertility begins to fall at age 28. That’s why Fertility Network would like to see the storage limit for eggs frozen for non-medical reasons extended beyond ten years in order to give women who want to freeze their eggs for social reasons greater flexibility on when to freeze and when to subsequently use them. However, it is vital to appreciate freezing your eggs does not guarantee future success: eggs may not survive being frozen or the defrosting process, birth rates from frozen eggs are still very low as this HFEA report confirms, and the fertility of your future partner has to be taken into consideration. Egg freezing does not represent a fertility insurance policy.’

Details of the report are available here .