Women up to 50 freeze their eggs –

After actress Sienna Miller announced that she had frozen eggs at the age of 40, it was revealed that British women did this until their 50th birthday.

The fertility regulator, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), says egg freezing should not be recommended for women in their 40s.

The chances of getting pregnant using her eggs are “very small,” she says.

But that didn’t stop fertility clinics from following in the footsteps of Ms. Miller, who announced this month that she had frozen her eggs at age 40 to avoid the “existential threat” of her biological clock.

The latest figures show that women aged 45 to 50 had a record number of egg freezing cycles in 2019. A total of 23 cycles in the UK, up from 20 the previous year, were just 10 in 2016 and less than five in 2014. .

An age classification from the HFEA shows that at least one 49-year-old woman froze her eggs in 2015.

Some cycles may have been imposed for medical reasons, not just “social” reasons, where women have not met the right partner or are not yet ready to start a family.

But experts fear that trendy egg freezing is being offered to women too old to benefit from it.

Joyce Harper, Professor of Reproductive Sciences at University College London, said: “I think freezing eggs over 35 is problematic because of the low chance of pregnancy. At 49, it’s completely useless because those eggs don’t lead to pregnancy.

The latest data shows that women aged 45 to 50 had a record number of egg freezing cycles in 2019.

“Egg freezing can have roughly the same success rates as IVF, which is largely age dependent. UK data for IVF show that the chances of getting pregnant over the age of 40 are very low: 11% between 40 and 42 and 5% between 43 and 44”.

Women have a better chance of having a baby if they freeze their eggs when they are younger. This is because the eggs are of better quality and therefore women have a higher chance of pregnancy when they use them for IVF later in life. However, frozen eggs for women over 40 are often of lower quality, so they may not provide the same benefit.

This raises the question of whether the cost of freezing and thawing eggs, which can cost an average of £8,000, is worth it for this age group.

Sarah Norcross, of the fertility organization Progress Educational Trust, said: “Women aged 40 and over who are considering freezing their eggs need quality independent information that their chances of future success are reduced. The clinic’s marketing materials can create an unrealistically optimistic impression.

“Any woman who freezes her eggs at this age… should know that her chances of success are low.” The fertility industry has been criticized for commercializing egg freezing, with clinics inviting women to talk about wine and cheese evenings or offer them prosecco.

The most common age for women to freeze eggs is 38. But doctors say the best time is between the ages of 20 and 30. Ms. Miller, 40, has a nine-year-old daughter named Marlowe with actor Tom Sturridge, whom she dated from 2011 to 2015.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Ms. Miller said: “[I felt] Engaged [about] I have to have kids and more and why not and all this is a very loud sound. Biology was incredibly cruel to women in that decade—that’s the title, or it was definitely for me. Then I turned 40 and froze some eggs.

“After I really focused on having another baby, I thought, ‘It’s okay. That kind of existential threat is gone.

HFEA’s Clare Ettinghausen said: ‘Choosing to freeze eggs is a serious undertaking and involves risks and costs. Freezing your eggs is not a guarantee for a future baby, but the younger you freeze the eggs, the better your chances of success.’