Fertility preservation

What it covers

The UK fertility regulator, the HFEA, says “Preserving your fertility involves freezing your eggs, sperm, embryos or reproductive tissue so that you can hopefully have a biological family in the future.”

India's ART Act uses a matching definition. It says “"cryo-preserve" means the freezing and storing of gametes, zygotes, embryos, ovarian and testicular tissues”

The three common routes each have a page: egg freezing (clinics naming it: 138), embryo freezing (128), and sperm freezing, for which the HFEA says “Men are able to freeze their sperm for use in their own future treatment or to donate to someone else's treatment.”

When it is used

The HFEA's first example is cancer treatment: “If you're having certain types of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy or radiotherapy, you might want to consider freezing your eggs, sperm or embryos. This is because some of the drugs used in cancer treatment can cause infertility, especially in high doses.”

On eggs specifically, it says freezing may be considered if “You're worried about your fertility declining but you're not ready to have a child or you haven't found the right partner – this is often called 'elective egg freezing'.” Whether it is appropriate in a particular case is a clinical decision for the treating doctor. This directory does not make that judgement.

What the regulator says about risks

The risks depend on the route. For eggs, the HFEA says “The major risk is that it won't work”; for embryos, “Although most embryos do survive the freeze thaw process, some may not survive.” Collecting eggs involves the drugs of an IVF cycle; the egg freezing page quotes the HFEA on their risks in full.

India’s ART (Regulation) Rules, 2022 set out two levels of clinic:

• A Level 1 clinic is one where “only IUI is carried out as part of treatment”.
• A Level 2 clinic is one where “all/advanced investigations, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in ART are carried out”.

Because a Level 1 clinic may carry out only IUI, Fertility preservation is Level 2 work.

That is why each clinic below shows the level the national registry records for it. Of the listings below, 74 are registered as Level 2, 9 as Level 1, and 35 have no level in the registry extract. This directory does not know why a Level 1 clinic names Fertility preservation. A clinic may send patients to a partner Level 2 laboratory, or its website may describe services it does not provide on site. Ask the clinic where the Fertility preservation itself is done, and check its registration on the National ART & Surrogacy Registry.

What India's ART Act says

Section 22(2): “The clinics and banks shall not cryo-preserve any human embryos or gamete, without specific instructions and consent in writing from all the parties seeking assisted reproductive technology, in case of death or incapacity of any of the parties.” Section 28(2) limits storage of “The gamete of a donor or embryo” to “not more than ten years”. Ask a clinic how these apply to what you want to store.