TV Review: Egg Freezing and Me 

Recent HFEA data have shown that egg and embryo freezing cycles continue to be the fastest growing fertility treatments in the UK, with more than a ten-fold increase in number of cycles of egg freezing occurring in 2021 (4215 cycles) compared to 2011 (373). Egg freezing technology continues to hold much public and media interest and was the focus of a new BBC investigation and documentary this month: 'Egg Freezing and Me'.

This thirty-minute documentary provided a nuanced picture of the diverse reasons why someone may make use of egg freezing, highlighted key concerns about the advertising and delivery of egg freezing and gave space for appropriate criticism and reflection on egg freezing technology in the UK. Most significantly perhaps, the piece reported on data gathered by the BBC in an analysis of 78 UK fertility clinic websites which concluded that 41 percent did not make clear the chance of having a live birth with frozen eggs, and accused some clinics of misleading potential users of the technology with a lack of accessible and transparent information about egg freezing 'success rates' (see BioNews 1231).

It seems that despite academic inquiry, official ethics committee opinions and even an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (see BioNews 1160), the quality of information available to fertility patients provided by clinics online continues in some cases to fall short.

A further area of concern touched on by the programme pertained to users being appropriately informed of the number of times (cycles) women may need to undergo the procedure to bank a sufficient number of eggs. This is not only important for informed consent purposes, but also to make them aware of the concomitant risks and costs of multiple cycles of treatment. Encouragingly the comments of one of the subjects of the documentary, Vicki, explained that she was provided this information by the clinic she visited and was able to take on a second job to meet the high costs of her fertility treatment.

While the BBC programme did well to feature the emotional scenes of Sophie post-retrieval when awaiting information about the number of eggs collected from her cycle, I don't think it fully captured how emotionally challenging the process of egg freezing can be for its users. Indeed, my research with female egg freezers found how the process of undergoing medicalised fertility treatment without the support of a partner presented particular practical but also interpersonal challenges. Practical challenges of concern included having to self-administer injections, attend appointments alone, be able to afford and pay for medicalised fertility treatment as a single person as well as navigate the process and clinic without the support of a partner. However, in some cases the greatest emotional burden of egg freezing came from the participants sense of isolation and loneliness when considering as well as undergoing the procedure.

The women I spoke to reported feeling a degree of stigma and embarrassment about making use of the technology and for 'still being single' at a stage in the life course when normative expectations often include marriage and motherhood. This was briefly visible in the programme where Vicki remarked somewhat sadly that she recalled, when administering her first injection, that she stood in her kitchen alone and thought 'Oh my god, I am actually doing this on my own'. Indeed, Vicki described how within a few days of undergoing ovarian stimulation she looked 'six months pregnant' referring to this as 'the cruellest irony'.

I would have therefore liked to have seen the BBC programme discuss the importance of high-quality and ongoing fertility counselling for users of egg freezing including the role trained fertility counsellors play in helping users process not only the circumstances that have brought them to the fertility clinic, but also help them think through the immediate but also more long-term fertility decisions they may need to make. Indeed, evidence shows that currently only a small number of women are returning to use their eggs to conceive and thus may face difficult decisions about the continued storage or disposal of their eggs (see BioNews 1196). Fertility counsellors can support users to think through these issues yet the value of such counselling is often overlooked including by this BBC programme.

However, for a thirty-minute programme, I was generally impressed by the broad scope achieved by the documentary makers. While the programme provided accounts of egg freezing 'success stories' it did so alongside a critical, informed and nuanced discussion of the limitations of egg freezing and ongoing problems with the way the technology may be being represented by some providers.

Furthermore, unlike similar documentaries, this BBC examination was more inclusive exploring egg freezing following cancer treatment, endometriosis, relationship breakdown as well as the possibilities offered by the technology to trans men. By going beyond the typical focus of 'social' egg freezing, this documentary thus showed the multiple voices and issues at stake for a variety of users of this potent and potentialising technology.