Egg freezing spiked after years of dates lost due to quarantine

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian have raised awareness of egg freezing after publicly talking about the procedure. Credit: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS

Egg freezing will account for just 4% of all fertility treatments in 2021, but the number of treatments has grown more than tenfold over the past decade. fastest growing fertility treatment in the UK.

Ms Ettenhausen warned that those considering this procedure should not underestimate the financial and emotional cost. The procedure usually involves injecting hormones into themselves several times a day.

She said: “Most patients pay for the treatment themselves. It can cost many tens of thousands of pounds and for many people it does not result in a baby.”

In general, frozen eggs are considered to have the same success rate as IVF. treatment depends on age. For a 35-year-old woman undergoing IVF, the odds are one in three.

Ms Ettenhausen said: «It can be a very lonely and difficult process.»

Almost two. -A third of all fertility treatments in 2021 were performed privately, compared to about half in 2019.

The number of IVF cycles funded by the National Health Service fell by 16% in two years, despite the fact that that IVF and donor insemination treatments increased by a tenth overall over this period.

Single women who chose to have a child alone were the group with the largest increase in the number of infertility treatments: the number of IVF cycles increased by 44%, and donor insemination increased by a quarter compared to 2019. .