Money blog: Growing trend: Women paying thousands to freeze eggs | Money news

Bhvishya Patel, Live News Reporter

When Natalie Getreu was 31, single and focused on her career, she decided to freeze her eggs.

Thanks to her job, she was able to save on the process, but it still cost her £5,300.

Natalie joins a growing number of women spending thousands of pounds to delay pregnancy by freezing eggs – the fastest growing fertility treatment in the UK, according to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.

Its figures show that 4,657 women have frozen their eggs in 2022, up from 2,571 three years earlier – an increase of 81%.

The procedure, which involves collecting a woman’s eggs, freezing them and thawing them at a later stage so they can be used for fertility treatment, is not usually available on the NHS unless you are undergoing treatment that affects fertility such as chemotherapy or chemotherapy. gender change.

Given the limited capacity of the NHS, the chances of conceiving naturally fall with age, and women having children later in life are increasingly turning to private treatment – and face huge costs and no guarantee of a successful pregnancy.

‘£2,000 for wasted drugs’

The procedure didn’t go according to plan for Natalie, chief executive of women’s health company Hertility.

Her first egg retrieval was complicated when her doctor called her in a panic and told her to stop hormone injections because a scan showed her ovaries were overstimulated, putting her at risk of developing blood clots – or, in rare cases, ovarian cysts.

“It meant I spent £2,000 on medication that went to waste,” says Natalie, 34, from London.

“I budgeted just enough for the round to go as planned. But they don’t always go according to plan.”

Without an extra £2,000, she said her options were limited, but her parents were able to lend her the money: “I can see how lucky that was.”

On top of treatment costs, there is a fee for storing the eggs, which costs Natalie £280 a year.

In addition to the financial problems, Natalie says she underestimated the emotional toll.

“No little girl grows up thinking, ‘I hope I can freeze my eggs.’ It’s something you do because of personal circumstances,” she says.

“You pump your body with hormones. I’m a scientist and have worked in this field for a long time, but I was shocked by how tired my body was and how emotional I felt.”

“Why should I be punished?”

When Katherine Miller decided to freeze her eggs, she couldn’t have been prepared for this outcome.

“I was only 35,” she says. “But I didn’t expect that my test results would be bad.”

Doctors told her she only had six months left before egg collection would become virtually impossible and her chances of having a baby would be greatly reduced.

Without the money to go through the multiple cycles likely needed to obtain enough eggs, she decided to take the “extreme step” of freezing fertilized embryos instead, giving her a better chance of becoming a mother in the future.

Catherine, 38, who works as an education manager at the British Council, spent a total of £12,000. This included £400 for initial tests, £250 for a consultation, £2,000 for medication, £1,200 for two vials of sperm and £7,000 for egg retrieval.

Knowing she needed to act quickly, and also aware of the number of restrictions placed on women wishing to freeze their eggs on the NHS, Catherine decided to immediately seek private treatment.

“NHS treatment for single women is not available in all areas, and where it is available there are a number of restrictions,” says Catherine, who pays £350 a year for embryo storage.

“I understand why egg freezing is becoming more popular, but there is an element of privilege to it and I definitely feel that. I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t have those savings.

“People have told me that I put my career first and decided to have these problems, and it’s very hurtful.

“There is still a perception in society that we did it ourselves and therefore it is not an NHS problem, but I would counter that by saying that my problems are medical in nature. They are almost certainly caused by medical problems – why should I be punished for this? ?”

She’s also worried about the cost of raising a child alone.

“I didn’t think about becoming a single mother by choice and how that would affect my finances,” she says. “It was a big shock and it was very difficult.”

The process also took a toll on Katherine mentally: “I’ve had a lot of therapy over the years. This is very important when you are dealing with test results and you have to make very important life decisions.”

“A small price to pay for peace of mind”

For actress Vanessa Vanderpue, it was a diagnosis of endometriosis that pushed her to the decision to freeze her eggs. She was 35.

“I started researching and realized the impact endometriosis can have on fertility,” she says.

In women with this condition, tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. This can cause severe pain in the pelvic area and make it difficult to get pregnant.

“After waiting so long to be diagnosed with endometriosis,” says Vanessa, now 37, “I didn’t want to feel like I was constantly racing against time or risking one day having a family.”

Vanessa first went through the NHS before choosing a private fertility clinic.

“There were days when I felt depressed, overwhelmed by the whole experience,” she says. “I felt like I was grieving the fact that having children might not be as easy as I once thought, especially considering how easy it was for all my friends and family around me.”

The process, which took about three weeks, cost her £3,900. She pays £350 a year to store her eggs.

“It’s an acceptable cost, but I definitely needed to plan for it,” says Vanessa. “It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. Knowing that my balls are here if I need them in the future gives me a sense of security that I wouldn’t trade.”

She adds: “There were times when I thought, ‘Can I afford this? Is this correct? but when I weighed the financial stress against the emotional and mental peace it would give me, I decided to continue.”

What else needs to be done?

According to Natalie, more funding is needed when it comes to female fertility.

“I think fertility is seen as an afterthought and that it’s nice to have rather than necessary,” she says.

“Often, if we can’t conceive, it’s a sign that something is wrong and it’s a sign that there’s an underlying health problem.

“And often health conditions associated with fertility are overlooked, and the idea of ​​going private is already a barrier.”

Amit Shah, consultant gynecologist and co-founder of Fertility Plus clinic on Harley Street, agrees that funding for women’s reproductive health is “definitely not enough”.

“Like so many things with the NHS, there just isn’t enough funding,” he says.

“I work in private and for me it’s a business, but equally it’s medicine and you really want people to benefit from healthcare and the benefits of modern healthcare. Why not?”

The best age to freeze eggs is between 20 and 30 years old, he said, but the “real test” is thawing the eggs before creating embryos.

“It’s not as rosy and wonderful as you read in some places, and it’s not as catastrophic as you read in some other places,” he says.

“Freezing eggs is always Plan B and you hope you don’t have to start it. It’s almost time travel.

“You can salvage something, but don’t think it will work. It may or may not work.”

An NHS spokesperson told Sky News: “The NHS is opening women’s health centers across the country, giving thousands of new women access to specialist reproductive health services in the community and increasing access to care for a range of conditions and concerns, including fertility.

“Eligibility decisions are legally required to be made by local health commissioners based on the needs of the people in their area, while seeking to balance competing demands on local NHS budgets.”

Sky News reporter Charlene Bou Mansour explored the causes of the global fertility crisis as women are having fewer children and more people are having trouble conceiving, in this deeply personal essay about her own fertility struggles – it’s worth it.