Spotlight on success: Positive choices, some sadness and a lot of acceptance

Katie froze her eggs in Hong Kong nearly a decade ago. She was a pioneer in her day, doing something most women around her hadn't even considered. A lot has happened since. A glittering career, an international life, a return to the UK. She also met a partner along the way, and somewhere in all of that, she quietly came to a different conclusion. She no longer wanted to use her eggs.

There were some tears

Discarding eggs is harder than it sounds, even when it is the right decision. There can be a real sense of loss. A loss of a piece of you. A loss of what might have been. And, if we are being honest, a tinge of annoyance at how much money has been spent along the way.

Katie had been avoiding the whole conversation. Letters from her clinic in Hong Kong had been arriving for the last couple of years, and she had been quietly ignoring them. It didn't feel great.

Talking it through

When Katie came to Egg Advisor, we spent time simply listening. There was no rush to a solution. Once she felt heard, we walked through her actual options.

She could move the eggs to the UK, where storage limits are much more generous. Since 1 July 2022, eggs can be stored in the UK for up to 55 years, with consent renewed every ten years. In Hong Kong, the limit is 10 years, or until the owner turns 55, whichever comes first

She could also simply discard them, which was the path she had been quietly avoiding.

Or, and this was the option she didn't know existed, she could donate her eggs to a Hong Kong university clinic for academic research.

The path Katie chose

With Egg Advisor's support, Katie worked with her clinic to donate her eggs to a university in Hong Kong for academic research. There was some paperwork, including a consent form that needed to be legally notarised under Hong Kong rules, but there was no cost to her. The eggs went on to have a purpose she could feel genuinely good about.

She said she was delighted with an outcome she didn't even know was possible.

What this story tells us

Not every egg freezing journey ends with a baby. Katie froze her eggs because they gave her options when she needed them. Years later, she made a different choice as life had simply moved on.

If you have been ignoring letters from your clinic, you are not alone. There is usually more than one way through, and there is no rush to decide today.