By preserving your fertility, you can take control of when the time is right to start your family. Egg freezing provides a unique opportunity to prolong your current fertility potential and expand your options if you choose to have children later in life. This is particularly valuable for women facing premature infertility, or those undergoing medical treatments that may affect reproductive health. Over the past decade, egg freezing has become an increasingly popular and reliable form of fertility preservation. Thanks to advancements in cryopreservation techniques, pregnancy rates from frozen eggs are now comparable to those using fresh eggs, making this a viable option for many women at different stages of their fertility journey.
Fertility preservation refers to the process of safeguarding your ability to have biological children in the future. For women, the most common and effective method is egg freezing, where multiple eggs are collected, frozen, and stored for potential use in later life through human fertilisation techniques like IVF.
This option is particularly suitable for women who may be at risk of losing their fertility due to medical treatments such as chemotherapy, or for those choosing social egg freezing—delaying pregnancy for personal, professional, or medical reasons. During the egg freezing programme, mature eggs are frozen at their peak quality and preserved in optimal conditions at a licensed fertility clinic.
When the time is right, these unfertilised eggs can be thawed and used in a future treatment cycle, offering a reliable path to parenthood supported by personalised guidance, expert care, and ongoing support from your fertility specialist.
For women, fertility preservation consists of collecting and preserving eggs for use in the future at a time that’s right for them. Preservation is possible due to the technique known as vitrification. Virtification is a specific method of freezing eggs in which their characteristics and quality are retained by being cryopreserved and stored at a very low temperature of -196ºC.
Women who might not be ready for a family right now, but wish to have the option of having children later in life. The best time to preserve fertility is before the age of 35. Beyond the age of 35, it is still possible to freeze eggs however the eggs will likely be lower in quality and quantity, and might not provide optimal chances of a pregnancy if used in a fertility treatment.
Treatment – When you’re ready to use your frozen eggs, they are carefully thawed in our laboratory through a process known as oocyte thawing. This marks the start of your next treatment cycle, where unfertilised eggs are fertilised—typically via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)—using either partner or donor sperm. Our experienced embryologists will monitor the embryos for development and quality before selecting the best one for your embryo transfer procedure.
You’ll have a detailed consultation with your fertility specialist and a dedicated treatment coordinator to discuss your fertility tests, number of eggs to thaw, expected pregnancy rates, and next steps. This personalised approach helps optimise your chances of conceiving and supports your ongoing fertility journey.
Storage – Under current UK legislation, eggs can be stored for up to 55 years, though you’ll need to review and re-sign consent forms every 10 years. Your eggs are preserved using advanced cryopreservation techniques to protect their integrity and maximise future fertility potential. Our secure storage facilities meet the highest safety standards and are managed by our expert reproductive medicine team here at IVI London.
Discarding – If you decide not to move forward with treatment, your healthy eggs may be safely discarded, or—with appropriate consent—considered for donation to research, training, or egg donation programmes. In some cases, patients may complete their families naturally and no longer need to use their stored eggs.
Your treatment coordinator can guide you through your treatment options and explain the implications of donation or disposal under the Embryology Act. At IVI, we are committed to supporting your reproductive health with expert advice and personalised care every step of the way.
Thanks to the freezing technique known as vitrification, we are able to maintain the quality of the eggs until the day they are thawed, with very high survival rates. This rate is currently over 95% for eggs collected from women under the age 35, which is much higher than that of traditional freezing methods. They can also be kept frozen for longer periods, with no time limitation.
When used in assisted reproductive treatment, previously vitrified eggs do not negatively affect the chances of the success in any way, as the oocytes maintain the same quality at the time they were preserved. In addition, the IVF success rates achieved with eggs that have been previously frozen and thawed are equal to those achieved with fresh eggs.
86%
18 – 24 years
Best age to have children from a physical point of view.
80%
25 – 30 years
High chances of getting pregnant without help.
65%
31 – 35 years
Production of quality eggs starts to decline.
45%
36 – 40 years
Low fertility. High risk of chromosomal alterations in the eggs.
5%
41 – 45 years
Very low fertility. The woman’s body prepares for menopause.
During your first consultation at IVI London, your fertility specialist will carry out a complete gynaecological examination and run some simple tests in order to assess the status of your fertility. They will then explain the different steps of the fertility preservation process based on this personalised assessment. During your second visit, your treatment pathway will begin.
The treatment begins at the start of your menstrual cycle, which is when we start the ovarian stimulation. Ovarian stimulation lasts between 10 – 12 days and consists of taking hormonal injections that trigger the ovaries to produce more eggs than they would during a normal menstrual cycle.
Your gynaecologist will monitor you closely with a series of ultrasound scans and blood tests. When the eggs have reached the right number and size, a dose of the hormone hCG is administered to induce ovulation. At this point, the egg retrieval procedure, known as egg collection, is scheduled at your clinic roughly 36 hours later.
The egg collection is performed within an operating theatre where you will be under sedation to ensure you don’t feel any discomfort. From start to finish, the procedure takes no longer than 20 minutes. During the procedure, the ovaries are accessed through the vaginal cavity, where the eggs are aspirated and taken to the laboratory to be vitrified.
After the procedure, you will be accompanied to your recovery room where you will be able to rest. When ready, you will be discharged and able to continue your day as normal. However, we recommend taking the day off work if possible.
When the eggs, known as oocytes, are frozen, they are treated to ensure they are not damaged during the cooling process. After they are treated, they are placed in protective carrier and immersed in liquid nitrogen at -196°C. The carrier is stored in specific tank which is constantly maintained at a very lower temperature. The tank has a double alarm system to ensure that the temperature remains within the optimum range at all times.
When it comes to utilising the frozen eggs, your prognosis will depend on the number of eggs collected and their quality at the time of freezing. Like any fertility treatment, it is important to remember that freezing eggs cannot guarantee a future pregnancy. However, by freezing eggs at the right time, it does guarantee the possibility of undergoing an IVF treatment at a later stage in life in which you will have higher chances of success.
Egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) and embryo cryopreservation differ based on when fertilisation occurs. If the egg is fertilised before freezing, an embryo is created; if fertilised after thawing, it’s considered oocyte freezing. Both procedures involve freezing using a technique called vitrification, which preserves quality.
While there is no strict age limit for egg freezing in the UK, most fertility specialists recommend preserving eggs before the age of 35, when both egg quantity and quality are typically at their highest. After 40, eggs reserve quality declines more rapidly, but it’s essential to speak with a fertility consultant early in your fertility journey to assess your individual risks and determine the best time to undergo the procedure.
A typical egg freezing cycle lasts around 13–13 days and includes several of the same steps as a standard IVF cycle. You’ll begin with daily injections of hormones to stimulate the ovaries, promoting follicle development and increasing the number of mature eggs collected. Throughout the process, your response will be monitored via ultrasound and treatment tests to ensure healthy follicles are developing before retrieval. This allows us to choose the right time for egg collection and maximise the egg yield, as well as increase the likelihood of your future live birth potential.
Egg freezing is not normally offered as a procedure on the NHS unless you are undergoing medical treatment that may affect your fertility.
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