For Whom The Egg Thaws: Insights From an Analysis Of 10 Years of Frozen Egg Thaw Data From Two UK Clinics, 2008-2017
This review explores the characteristics and motivations of patients who returned to thaw their frozen eggs to attempt conception. In total, there were 129 patients who returned to thaw their eggs. Within this, 46 of these patients had originally revealed that they were freezing their eggs for social reasons, whereas 83 patients revealed that they were freezing their eggs for a variety of clinical, incidental, and ethical reasons - which we have referred to as "non-social."
All women who froze their eggs for social reasons were single at the time of freeze and had an average age of 37.7. They kept their eggs in storage for just under five years, returning to the clinic to use them at an average age of 42.5. Interestingly, only 43.5% of these patients were still single at the time of thaw, with 47.8% of them using donor sperm to fertilise their eggs.
This is in comparison to patients who froze their eggs for non-social reasons, who had an average age of 37.2 at the time of freeze and 37.6 at the time of thaw, having kept their eggs in storage for an average of only 0.4 years. Notably, 97.6% of these patients were in a relationship at the time of both thaw and freeze.
This review found that there was a 20.9% success rate for patients attempting conception with frozen-thawed eggs.
