Fertility preservation - egg freezing: patient information

Conditions that can affect your fertility

Cancer

Cancer treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and some surgeries can impact your ovaries’ ability to produce eggs and your future chances of pregnancy. The risk to your fertility depends on your age and the specific treatment. Discuss the potential impact on your fertility with your cancer team. If your fertility is at risk, and you hope to have children in the future, consider preserving your fertility by freezing your eggs before starting cancer treatment.

Gender related treatment

Hormone treatment and some gender-related surgeries could make you infertile. This depends on the type of treatment you have. Hormone therapy (puberty blockers or testosterone) suppresses your fertility. In most cases, fertility will recover if you stop hormone treatment; however, in some cases, it is possible that it may not. Surgery to remove the ovaries is irreversible and will make you infertile.

If you think you would like children at some point, you may wish to preserve your fertility by having your eggs frozen and stored for later use in fertility treatment. Often, this is best done before starting hormone treatment, but if you decide on this later, after starting treatment, that should be possible. You might need to stop hormone treatment for a few months.

Other conditions

Some health conditions can affect your ability to have children, sometimes even causing early menopause. For example, conditions like Turner syndrome mosaicism and Galactosaemia can lead to a premature loss of eggs.

Additionally, treatments for other health issues can also damage fertility. If you’re facing such a treatment and hope to have children someday, freezing your eggs beforehand could help preserve your fertility.

Front-line armed forces personnel facing deployment to a combat zone can be offered fertility preservation under the NHS.