Peers demand change to ‘nonsensical’ egg-freezing laws

Peers demand change to ‘nonsensical’ law that forces most women who want to freeze their eggs to use them within a decade

Minister must agree to change a ‘nonsensical’ law that forces most women who want to freeze their eggs to use them within a decade, peers will argue this week.

They want to amend regulations imposing a 10-year time limit on the use of frozen eggs for women who want to put them on ice for ‘social’ reasons. At present, only women who can prove they are prematurely infertile – for example, as a result of cancer treatment – can freeze them for longer than 10 years.

Minister must agree to change a ‘nonsensical’ law that forces most women who want to freeze their eggs to use them within a decade, peers will argue this week

Crossbench peer Baroness Deech, a former chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, argued the current rules discriminated against women – as men could freeze their sperm for up to 55 years.

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She added that the current legal framework put younger women off freezing their eggs when the cells were in the best condition.

‘It’s very tough, because the best time for a woman to freeze her eggs is in her 20s,’ said Baroness Deech, who will lead the debate in the House of Lords on Thursday.

It follows a parliamentary petition to change the law, reported by The Mail on Sunday in May.

Dr Kylie Baldwin of De Montfort University, who started the petition, said: ‘This nonsensical piece of legislation curtails women’s reproductive choices, instead of enabling them as the technology was intended to do.’

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