An Oxford scholar has cautioned that egg-freezing clinics are “preying” on women’s fears to sell them a treatment they may not need and that is unlikely to work.
Imogen Goold, a professor of medical law, stated that women in their late 30s or older should not be encouraged to pay to have their eggs frozen, as the likelihood of using them to have a child is extremely low.
According to research, the likelihood that a frozen egg would result in a live baby decreases considerably as the age of the woman freezing the egg increases.
Eggs frozen by women between the ages of 36 and 39 had success rates as low as 3%.
Last week, Professor Goold stated at the annual conference of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust (PET): “I believe that selling egg freezing to women in their late 30s is the worst thing that could happen.” Because selling an egg to a 39-year-old with the expectation that she will use it when she is 45 is difficult.
According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, two-thirds of egg-freezing cycles in the UK include women aged 35 or older (HFEA).
The number of egg-freezing cycles for women over the age of 35 has increased from 148 in 2010 to 1,589 in 2019.
Professor Goold stated that women required greater access to objective information regarding the realities of egg freezing.
She continued, ‘Obviously the commercial services offering it has a vested incentive in persuading [women] that it works extremely well.’
The average quoted price for an egg-freezing cycle is approximately £3,250, however, this price frequently excludes expenses such as drugs and egg storage, which can raise the total to £8,000.
IVF clinics have previously been accused of utilizing statistics misleadingly to give women a “false sense of assurance” regarding the treatment’s ability to result in a future pregnancy.
Clare Ettinghausen of the HFEA stated, “As fertility declines in the mid-30s, clinics must inform patients of the success rate of egg freezing after that age.”
