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Ovarian freezing bank can help delay your maternity date
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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English ladies will soon be able to postpone motherhood using the latest successful method - freezing part of the ovaries. This opportunity will be provided to ladies by the first special hospital, which will open in the country in the foreseeable future.
Today, the procedure is available only in a few countries, such as the United States, Denmark and Belgium. It allows women in their 20s and 30s to donate some of their more productive ovarian tissue to an "ovary bank." Eventually, when the woman decides she is ready to conceive, the tissue is implanted back.
The service will cost around £16,000 and is expected to be available within six months.
At the moment, 19 children have been born worldwide using this method. Experts believe that this method will become more widespread in the future, as it is more effective than egg freezing and even IVF.
To preserve part of the ovary, a woman will need to remove about a third of the organ. The removed tissue is stored in liquid nitrogen at -190 C. For each year of consideration, the expectant mother will have to pay 100 pounds.
When a woman is finally ready to have children, the tissue is implanted back and egg production begins within a few months. Doing this procedure can give a woman thousands of eggs instead of the twelve she would have had to freeze her eggs.
Until now, this method has been used, as a rule, by women with oncological diseases who want to preserve healthy ovarian tissue after a course of chemotherapy treatment. However, English doctors hope to offer the newest procedure to other women who are in no hurry to become mothers not because of health problems, but for some other secondary reasons.
Some experts believe that the procedure should not be used unless there is a special need. The presence of removed tissue at an early age can worsen the chances of a woman to have a baby.
"This can lead to scarring or a defect in the pelvis, which can make it difficult to get pregnant naturally," says doctor Gillian Lockwood.
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