Planning / 30 June, 2025 / My Baba
When it comes to fertility, understanding your options can feel overwhelming. Egg freezing and egg sharing are two pathways that more women are exploring — but separating fact from assumption is key to making informed decisions. In this article, Dr Archana Ranganathan, Deputy Medical Director at CREATE Fertility, breaks down exactly what you really need to know about egg freezing and sharing, offering expert advice to help you navigate the process with confidence.
It is a biological reality that as women grow older, the number and quality of eggs naturally decline, making it harder to conceive. This decline begins in the late 20s and becomes more marked after 35. Egg freezing enables women to preserve younger, healthier eggs, offering the potential to delay pregnancy and keep the option of having a biological child later in life.
Many women choose to freeze their eggs for reasons including professional or personal goals, waiting to find the right partner, achieving financial security, or preserving fertility before medical treatment. For others, it’s simply about keeping future reproductive options open.
Egg freezing offers the power of informed choice, but it’s important to understand that it’s not a guarantee. Success depends heavily on age at freezing and the number of eggs collected. While it cannot promise a future pregnancy, it can improve the chances. A consultation with a fertility specialist helps clarify your individual situation and supports confident, informed decision-making.
Fertility preservation is most effective for women in their late 20s to early 30s, when egg quality is higher. Research shows that for women freezing eggs before 35, the live birth rate per embryo transferred can be as high as 40%, but this declines sharply as age increases. Despite this, the average age of egg freezing in the UK remains around 37, with many women considering it closer to 40.
Every woman’s fertility journey is unique, and regardless of where you are, it’s best to speak with a fertility consultant to understand your personal likelihood of success based on age, ovarian reserve, and other health factors.
Egg sharing means donating a portion of the eggs collected during your own treatment cycle to another woman who is struggling to conceive. Women who choose to share must first complete medical, genetic, psychological, and infectious disease screening – this typically takes 2–3 months. If you meet the eligibility criteria, including being in good health and within a certain age range, you may be able to help another person while receiving your own treatment at a reduced cost.
Joining a freeze-and-share programme is a deeply personal and extraordinarily generous act. It can ease the financial burden of fertility treatment while giving another woman the chance to become a parent. However, it is a profoundly sensitive and complex decision – one that should never be made under any pressure and only with a full understanding of the legal and emotional implications.
The process of egg freezing begins with a course of daily hormone injections for about 2 weeks to stimulate your ovaries. You’ll be closely monitored with scans and blood tests. Eggs are then retrieved in a short procedure under sedation and frozen using vitrification—a rapid freezing method that preserves egg viability.
The UK law allows eggs to be stored for up to 55 years, but you will need to renew consent for storage every decade.
Most women tolerate egg freezing well, though side effects such as tiredness, bloating and emotional changes can occur. After egg collection, mild cramps and spotting are common.
Occasionally, antibiotics are prescribed to reduce infection risk. OHSS is a rare but serious complication that can occur when the ovaries over-respond to stimulation.
It is worth noting that some clinics offer mild IVF treatment, which involves lower medication doses and shorter treatment durations. This approach can significantly reduce the risk of complications like OHSS, as well as lessen the overall treatment burden and associated side effects.
Importantly, the safety of egg freezing is well established. Research has shown that babies born from frozen eggs have no increased risk of birth defects compared to those conceived naturally, so women planning to freeze their eggs don’t need to worry about this.
When you’re ready to conceive, your eggs are thawed and fertilised in the lab using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a sperm is injected into an egg. The resulting embryos are grown and assessed, and the best one is transferred to the womb – typically after 3 to 5 days later.
Egg freezing is a long-term financial commitment, so it’s essential that you understand the associated costs. HFEA data suggests the total average cost for freezing and using eggs ranges from £7,000 to £8,000. This includes stimulation -medications, scans, blood tests, egg collection and freezing. Storage fees are separate, typically ranging from £125 to £350 per year. However, cost varies depending on the clinic and cycle package. For example, some clinics offer free or discounted treatment to patients who agree to share their eggs with another patient having treatment via a ‘freeze-and-share’ scheme. Separate fees will apply if and when you need to thaw the eggs in the future.
If you’re considering egg sharing, speak to a fertility specialist and seek adequate guidance and advice through support networks, counselling or legal advice to help you consider future implications. UK law states that a child conceived through egg donation can request identifying information about their donor when they turn 18, so it is important you understand this before going through egg sharing.
It is also important to prepare emotionally for extreme outcomes like recipient pregnancy versus donor disappointment.
Understanding the process, potential risks, and emotional implications will help you make the right decision for you – one rooted in knowledge, confidence, and autonomy.
Further information can be found on the NHS and HFEA websites.
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