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- By Anna Collinson, Maryam Ahmed and Bella McShane
- bbc news
Natalie Thomas struggled to understand from her clinic’s website what her chances of having a baby were.
Some UK clinics are misleading women who freeze their eggs about their chances of having a baby, a fertility charity claims.
Fertility Network was reacting to BBC analysis which found 41% of clinics offering the service privately could be breaching advertising guidelines.
The watchdog that establishes orientation says clinics “should not provide false or misleading information.”
It comes as record numbers of people are freezing their eggs.
The UK’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), also said it was concerned about the information provided to those considering egg freezing.
The procedure does not guarantee a successful pregnancy.
Non-medical egg freezing, also known as social egg freezing, is an increasingly popular method for women to preserve their fertility so they can have children at a later date.
The procedure is not normally available on the NHS unless you are receiving medical treatment that may affect your fertility, such as chemotherapy or gender reassignment.
According to the HFEA, there were more than 4,000 egg freezing procedures in the UK in 2021, compared to almost 400 in 2011.
Anna Collinson explores the full history of egg freezing.
When a person wants to have a baby, frozen eggs can be thawed and used in fertility treatments, such as IVF.
No two cases are the same and there are many variables that can influence a patient’s chances of having a baby, such as her age, her health, how many eggs were successfully frozen and then thawed, as well as the quality of the sperm.
The BBC analyzed the websites of all 78 fertility clinics advertising private egg freezing in the UK.
We found that 32 websites (41%) were unclear about a patient’s chances of successfully having a baby in the future.
Of that group, most websites advertised successful thawing rates of 80-95%, a process in which eggs are thawed for use in fertility treatments.
But these clinics did not make it clear that the chances of having a baby are dramatically lower because there are multiple stages of the process before an embryo is successfully implanted, through fertility treatments like IVF.
“I feel very angry at patients because they are being misled by this level of information,” said Dr Catherine Hill of the charity The Fertility Network.
Few patients in the UK have reused their frozen eggs, but for those who do, success rates are slightly lower than IVF with fresh eggs, which is around 20-30% per round depending. of the age. It could be as low as 5% for people in their 40s, according to the HFEA.
The BBC spoke to more than 30 women who had frozen their eggs
The BBC analysis also found that 31 of the clinics published thawing rates without indicating how many patients the information was based on or specifying their sources.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government watchdog, has guidance on what information should appear on clinic websites.
It says egg freezing is a “significant financial and emotional commitment” and that patients should be “properly informed” about success rates and costs.
The BBC spoke to more than 30 women who had undergone the procedure, as part of the documentary Egg Freezing and Me. They described it as expensive and invasive, but also empowering.
Some of them felt that the clinics had not adequately informed them about the real costs of egg freezing or its chances of success.
‘I felt very alone’
At age 39, Natalie Thomas decided to freeze her eggs at a private fertility clinic, but she had trouble understanding what her chances of having a baby were, according to information from the clinic.
“It was a trip where I felt very alone and that I was the one driving it and I had to do a lot of research,” said Natalie, a science teacher with a background in statistics and data.
Natalie later discovered on the fertility regulator’s website that the clinic she had chosen had lower pregnancy success rates compared to the national average.
“If I had known this information beforehand, I don’t think I would have frozen in that clinic,” he says.
Natalie moved in with her mother in 2020 to save money to freeze eggs. Two years later, at age 41, she decided that she was ready to be a mother.
She ended up spending £18,500 on medication, two rounds of egg retrieval, two years of storage and IVF treatment. She underwent IVF at a different private clinic.
After a successful pregnancy, she gave birth to her son, Huxley, in March last year.
“Holding Huxley for the first time was a wonderful feeling,” he said.
“I am aware that I am very lucky and that it is not the same for all women.”
Natalie and her son Huxley
We also showed our analysis to the British Fertility Society, a group of industry professionals.
A spokesman for the group expressed concern about the use of what he described as “unusually high” defrosting rates displayed on some websites, without explaining what they are based on.
Dr Ippokratis Sarris questioned whether the statistics could be related to “a carefully selected group of patients”, which he said would be “bad practice”.
“It gives patients unrealistic expectations and is not fair to other clinics who are trying to be open and transparent,” she said.
A patient’s personal chances of success should be discussed when they come to a clinic in person, the doctor added, but the information on a clinic’s website should be transparent and never misleading.
The HFEA says it is the responsibility of clinics to ensure patients receive all the information they need to be adequately informed. She said she worried that might not always happen. He would like broader regulatory powers to fine clinics.
A spokesperson for the Competition and Markets Authority said all information provided by fertility clinics “must be clear, timely and easy to understand”.
“We stated what we want to say in CMA guide for fertility clinics on consumer law. For example, claims regarding egg freezing success rates are likely to be misleading if they cannot be proven, do not explain the effect of age on the likely outcome, or do not explain the difference between egg survival rates. and live birth rates. “.
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