Fertility experts are telling the government that women who freeze their eggs should be allowed to keep them for longer than 10 years.
A legislation states frozen eggs must be destroyed after ten years unless there is a medical condition that has left the woman prematurely infertile. Experts told the Victoria Derbyshire programme that the limit was inconsistent and had not kept up with technology. The government said the extension “would be a significant policy change”.
Campaigners say the method of freezing has changed since the law was created and the current method means eggs can be frozen without deterioration for an undefined period of time. They say the limit means a growing number of woman face losing their chances of having a baby or rushing to find donors so they can refreeze an embryo.
Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Education Trust which helps people with infertility issues, is one of the three experts due to meet junior health minister Jackie Doyle-Price today.
Ms Norcross said: “There’s absolutely no biological reason for this law,”
“It’s discriminatory against women and removing an option for them to take charge of their reproductive system.
“If you want to freeze your eggs in your late 20s, you might not then have decided you want to use them by your late 30s.”
Ms Norcross will be joined at the meeting by Baroness Deech, former chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, who raised this debate in the House of Lords last year and Prof Emily Jackson who specialises in medical law.
In the debate last year, Conservative Lord O’Shaunghnessy said any extension to time limits for egg storage “would be a significant social policy change, with far-reaching impacts on decisions that women make in starting families. It would require a broader public debate before any change could be contemplated”.
Between 1978 and 2016 there has been over 1.1 million in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment cycles have taken place, this is since the first IVF baby in 1978. A small number of people use eggs that have been collected from women and then frozen. Woman who freeze their own eggs normally have two main reasons for doing so. One primary reason is they may be undergoing medical treatment such as chemotherapy or have medical conditions that reduces fertility and are not ready for a baby at that point in their life. The second primary reason is they are opting to preserve their fertility for a later date to increase their chances of having a child later in life.
