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09 November 2011

Summary of request

The Authority was asked for information about which HFEA licensed clinics offer egg storage and the success rate of treatment using stored eggs in the UK and abroad.

HFEA response

The HFEA provides patient information about egg storage on its website at: http://www.hfea.gov.uk/44.html. The HFEA also has a Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Group that has reviewed fertility preservation at two of its recent meetings: http://www.hfea.gov.uk/6620.html (male fertility) and  http://www.hfea.gov.uk/6348.html (female fertility) . The papers and minutes of the Group’s discussions may be of interest to you. For success rate information outside the UK I would suggest contacting the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (http://www.asrm.org/ ) and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (http://www.eshre.eu/ ).

The HFEA online clinic directory (http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide/) lists clinics that offer general storage of eggs and storage of eggs specifically for oncology patients. The HFEA does not regulate access to storage/treatment, therefore, if you require further information about clinics’ patient criteria for egg storage then I would recommend contacting clinics directly. Contact details for clinics are available in the clinic directory.

With regards to success rates for women receiving treatment using eggs that were stored for social or medical reasons. The information you request can be extracted from the HFEA Register, however, extracting the available data would require a piece of bespoke analysis. Before we embark on bespoke analysis I therefore invite you to look at relevant information already released by the HFEA, in this case a response to a previous request for information that stated:

“A search of our records up to 30 June 2009, the most recent period for which treatment outcome data is verified, shows 5 live births (4 patients). These were reported by two centres - Midland Fertility Services and Birmingham Women's Hospital. Each patient stored their eggs at the centre where they had the subsequent treatment using frozen-thawed eggs.

This information was extracted from the HFEA’s data warehouse on 04-10-2011. The data warehouse includes only verified data, which currently means live births taking place up to 30 June 2009.  Data sets for more recent periods will be added once these have been subjected to the HFEA’s routine verification procedures and the centres that supplied the data have been asked to confirm their accuracy, for which they remain responsible.”

Page last updated: 16 August 2012

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