By Bhvishya Patellive reporter

When Natalie Getreu was 31, single and focused on her career, she decided to freeze her eggs.

She was able to save money on the process thanks to her work, but it still cost her £5,300.

Natalie has joined the growing number of women spending thousands of pounds to delay pregnancy by freezing their eggs – the fastest growing fertility treatment in the UK, according to the Human Fertilization & Embryology Authority.

Its figures show that 4,657 women froze their eggs in 2022, compared to 2,571 three years earlier, an increase of 81%.

The procedure – which involves collecting a woman’s eggs, freezing them and later thawing them so they can be used in fertility treatment – ​​is not usually available on the NHS unless you follow treatment that affects fertility, such as chemotherapy or sex reassignment.

With limited NHS options, chances of conceiving naturally decreasing with age and women having children later in life, more and more women are turning to private treatment – and facing high prices and no guarantee of a successful pregnancy.

‘£2,000 worth of drugs wasted’

The procedure didn’t go as planned, according to Natalie, chief executive of women’s health company Hertility.

Her first egg retrieval was hit with complications when her clinician called her in a panic to tell her to stop the hormone injections because scans showed her ovaries were overstimulated, putting her at risk for risk of developing blood clots – or in rare cases, ovarian cysts.

“It meant I spent £2,000 on medication which was wasted,” says Natalie, 34, from London.

“I had budgeted exactly for the cycle to go as planned. But they don’t always go as planned.”

Without a spare £2,000, her options were limited, she says, but her parents were able to lend her some money: “I’m very aware of how lucky that was.”

As well as the processing fee, there is a charge for storing the eggs, which costs Natalie £280 a year.

Beyond her financial worries, Natalie says she underestimated the emotional burden.

“No little girl grows up saying, ‘I hope I can freeze my eggs.’ It’s something you do because of personal circumstances,” she says.

“You fill your body with hormones. I’m a scientist and I’ve been working in this field for a long time, but I was shocked at how tired my body was and how emotional I felt.”

“Why should I be punished?

When Catherine Miller decided to freeze her eggs, she couldn’t have prepared for this outcome.

“I was only 35,” she says. “But I didn’t imagine my test results would be bad.”

Doctors told her she only had six months left before egg collection would become almost impossible and her chances of having a baby would be much slimmer.

Without the money to do multiple rounds, likely necessary to get enough eggs, she decided to take an “extreme measure” and freeze the fertilized embryos instead, giving her a better chance of becoming a mother later.

Catherine, 38, who works as an education stakeholder manager at the British Council, spent a total of £12,000. This included £400 for initial tests, £250 for a consultation, £2,000 for medication, £1,200 for two vials of sperm and £7,000 for egg retrieval.

Knowing she needed to act quickly and also aware of the number of restrictions placed on women seeking to freeze their eggs on the NHS, Catherine chose to immediately seek treatment privately.

“NHS treatment for single women is not available in all areas and where it does exist, there are a number of restrictions,” says Catherine, who pays £350 a year for embryo storage.

“I understand why egg freezing is becoming more and more popular, but there is an element of privilege and I really feel it. I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t have that savings.

“I’ve had people tell me that I prioritized my career and chose to have these problems and it’s very hurtful.

“There’s still this attitude in society that we’ve done this to ourselves and so it’s not an NHS problem, but I would respond to that by saying my problems are medical. They almost certainly are caused by medical problems – why should I be punished for this?

She also worries about how much it would cost to raise a child alone.

“I hadn’t thought about becoming a single mother by choice or the impact it would have on my finances,” she says. “It was a big shock and it was very difficult.”

The process also took a mental toll on Catherine: “I’ve had a lot of therapy over the years. It’s pretty essential when you’re dealing with test results and having to make really big decisions in life .”

“A small price to pay for peace of mind”

For actress Vanessa Vanderpuye, it was a diagnosis of endometriosis that prompted her decision to freeze her eggs. She was 35 years old.

“I started researching and realized the impact endometriosis could have on fertility,” she says.

In women with the condition, tissue similar to the uterine lining develops outside the uterus. This can cause severe pain in the pelvis and make it more difficult to get pregnant.

“After waiting so long to get an endometriosis diagnosis,” says Vanessa, now 37, “I didn’t want to feel like I was constantly racing against time or risking my chances of starting a family. A day.”

Vanessa first went through the NHS before choosing a private fertility clinic.

“There were days when I felt depressed, overwhelmed by the whole experience,” she says. “I felt like I was crying thinking that having kids might not be as easy as I thought, especially seeing how easy it was for all my friends and family around Me.”

The process, which took around three weeks, cost him £3,900. She pays £350 a year to store her eggs.

“It’s a manageable cost, but it’s definitely something I had to plan for,” says Vanessa. “It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. Knowing that my eggs are there if I need them in the future gives me a sense of security that I wouldn’t trade.”

She adds: “There were times when I asked myself, ‘Can I afford this? Is this the right thing to do?’ but when I weighed the financial pressure against the emotional peace and mentality that it would bring me, I decided to move forward.

What more needs to be done?

According to Natalie, more funding is needed when it comes to women’s fertility.

“I think fertility is seen as an afterthought and a nice to have rather than a need,” she says.

“Often, if we are unable to conceive, it is an indication that something is wrong and there is an underlying health problem.

“And often health issues related to fertility are overlooked and the idea of ​​going private is already a blockage.”

Amit Shah, consultant gynecologist and co-founder of Harley Street Fertility Plus clinic, agrees that funding for women’s reproductive health is “definitely not enough”.

“As with so many things with the NHS, there is simply not enough funding,” he says.

“I’m in the private sector and it’s business for me, but it’s also medicine and you want people to have health care and the benefits of modern health care. Why wouldn’t they? “

The best age to freeze eggs is between your late 20s and mid-30s, he says, but the “real test” is to thaw the eggs before creating embryos.

“It’s not all rosy and wonderful as we read in some places and it’s not as dire as we read in other places,” he says.

“Freezing eggs is always a plan B and you hope you don’t have to trigger that plan. It’s almost like time travel.

“You are capable of salvaging something, but don’t assume it will work. It may or may not work.”

An NHS spokesperson told Sky News: “The NHS is rolling out women’s health centers across the country, giving thousands more women access to specialist reproductive health services in the community and increasing access to care for a range of conditions and issues, including fertility.

“Decisions about eligibility are legally a matter for local health commissioners, based on the needs of the population in their area, whilst seeking to balance competing demands on local NHS budgets.”

Sky News journalist Charline Bou Mansour has investigated the causes of the global fertility crisis, as women are having fewer children and more people are struggling to conceive, in this deeply personal essay about her own fertility issues – well worth your time.