Why Women Freeze Their Eggs

If you are reading this, you are probably already thinking hard about your own fertility and your options for preserving your fertility. You may be hopeful, anxious, curious, or simply trying to make sense of a decision that feels much bigger than the medical procedure itself. Whatever brought you here, you are in good company.

In our own Egg Advisor survey of women considering egg freezing, 88% told us they felt uncertain, 84% felt overwhelmed, and 55% felt confused — even though most of them had been thinking about it for some time and felt optimistic about the potential for egg freezing.   We found that these conflicting decisions are a sign that that deciding whether to freeze your eggs or not is often a layered decision, shaped as much by the world around you as by anything happening inside your body.

This article walks through the most common reasons women in freeze their eggs and draws on data and reports from the UK (where information is well reported). 

Egg freezing in the UK: a quick picture

Egg freezing is becoming more and more common, but it is still undertaken less than people undertake IVF.

According to the HFEA, the UK’s fertility regulator:

• Egg freezing cycles rose by 45% between 2022 and 2023.

• There were 6,932 egg freezing cycles in 2023, up from 2,567 in 2019.

• Egg freezing still made up only 7% of all UK fertility procedures in 2023.

• The average age of people freezing their eggs was 35, and the average age at thawing was 40.

• At least 15% of egg freezing cycles were for medical reasons between 2018 and 2022.

The figures in the UK reflect what is going in much of the rest of the world.  More are undertaking egg freezing so for non-medical, often called “social”, reasons. Below are the reasons they tell researchers and clinicians most often.

1. Concerns around age-related fertility decline

This is, by a long way, the most common reason women give for wanting to freeze their eggs.

In our Egg Advisor survey, 97% of respondents cited age-related fertility decline as the primary reason for considering egg freezing, with only 3% citing previous fertility problems (Egg Advisor, 2024).

The biology behind this is fairly simple, even if it can feel unfair. Women are born with all the egg follicles they will ever have. The quality and quantity of those eggs decline gradually from your late twenties, more noticeably in your mid-thirties, and faster again in your forties. Egg freezing at a younger age tends to mean more eggs collected per cycle, and better quality eggs.   These eggs can then be stored and used later – meaning that you have “younger eggs” for IVF when the time comes. 

Many women describe egg freezing as a way of “buying time” against this biological clock — not because they want to delay motherhood for its own sake, but because life simply has not lined up to make conception the right thing for them.   Whilst society might be changing, our biology is not and egg freezing offers a way of getting around that. 

2. Not being ready to start a family

“Ready” is broad word. It can mean financially ready, emotionally ready, ready in terms of work, or ready in your relationship.

In our survey, 23% of women who were worried about age-related fertility decline also said they were not ready to start a family (Egg Advisor, 2024). The two reasons sit side by side, not in opposition.

Not being ready is not the same as not wanting children. For many women, it is a thoughtful, honest answer – but the reasons for not being ready are often layered as we will explain. 

3. Not having met the right partner

This is the reason that the headlines often miss, but our research finds again and again.

In the UK, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics has noted that “most UK women who have social egg freezing are single, university-educated, and in professional employment”, and that lack of a committed partner is a common reason for freezing eggs.   Whilst the technology may have changed what is possible, culturally most people still want to have a biological child with someone that they are emotionally connected with. 

HFEA figures support this. In their analysis, single patients made up just 2% of all IVF cycles in 2018, but 55% of egg freezing cycles. An earlier HFEA report found that 54.1% of women aged 38 and over and 36.4% of women aged 37 and under who froze their eggs had recorded “no male partner” as a relevant factor.

International research tells the same story. A study of 150 women who had undergone elective egg freezing in the US and Israel found that 85% had done so because they lacked a partner — not because they were postponing motherhood for their careers. 

If you are freezing your eggs because the right relationship has not happened yet, you are not alone. You are, in fact, in the majority.

4. Delayed relationships, marriage and changing family structures

It can help to zoom out. The age at which women in the UK have their first child, get married, or settle into long-term partnerships has been rising steadily for decades.  Many people see this as a positive thing.  The more educated a society is,  the later women seem to have children, but it is a trend that our biology is not ready for. 

None of this is your doing. It is the backdrop you are making your decision against.

5. Financial pressures

The money side having a family matters more than it is often given credit for.

UK research has consistently linked high housing costs and financial insecurity with delayed parenthood. The Centre for Social Justice has reported that rising housing costs, delayed financial independence, later marriage and uncertainty about careers are all pushing family formation later in life.  

Egg freezing itself is not cheap.  So people are often making this decision while also trying to save a deposit, pay rent, or build any kind of financial cushion. That tension is real, and it is not personal — it is structural.

6. Medical reasons: a separate path

Somefreeze their eggs for medical, rather than social, reasons. This is a different journey, and it is important not to blur the two.

Medical reasons may include:

• Treatment for cancer that could affect fertility, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

• Conditions like endometriosis, premature ovarian insufficiency, or other diagnoses that may impact future fertility.

• Egg freezing before gender-affirming treatment.

The HFEA estimates that at least 15% of egg freezing cycles in the UK were for medical reasons between 2018 and 2022. Where freezing is medical, NHS funding is more likely to be available. 

If your reason for considering egg freezing is medical, please speak to your doctor as well as a fertility clinic. The decision often has to be made quickly, and the support around it is rightly more clinical. An Egg Advisor can also help you find the right people to talk to.

Whatever your reasons: this is not personal failure

Many considering egg freezing often feel pressure to “fix” their reproductive ageing, when many of the underlying causes are about the world

Researchers who study this area in detail are clear that the rise in egg freezing is, in large part, a response to a changing social landscape — not a sign of women individually getting things wrong. Egg freezing sits at the intersection of biology, technology and social change. Decisions that look very personal are shaped by a vast range of social and economic factors, the timing of relationships, and what culture expects of women at different stages of life.

So if you are sitting with this decision and feeling like you “should” have done things differently — earlier relationship, earlier baby, different career — please be kind to yourself. The data tells a much more compassionate and complicated story.

What next?

There is no right or wrong reason to freeze your eggs. There is also no right or wrong reason to decide not to. What matters is that you make the decision with clear, balanced information and the right support around you.

If you would like to think this through more carefully, our Considering Egg Freezing tool walks you through questions designed to help you reflect on where you are, what you want to know, and what your next step might be. You can also book a 1:1 conversation with an Egg Advisor.

Useful sources

• HFEA, Egg freezing: a factsheet — hfea.gov.uk