The number of people choosing to freeze their eggs or embryos has increased five-fold in the UK since 2013, according to latest figures.

Data from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) show that the number of egg and embryo storage cycles rose by 523 per cent between 2013 and 2018.

According to its figures, the number of cycles rose from 1,500 in 2013 to just under 9,000 in 2018.

There was a 93 per cent rise in frozen embryo transfer cycles between the two years, up from 13,421 to 25,889.

Meanwhile, the number of fresh embryo transfers rose from 48,391 to 42,835, a drop of 11 per cent.

A number of reasons could be attributed to the rise in the number of people freezing their embryos or eggs, including improved freezing facilities, advances in treatment options and an increased desire for patients to freeze them for future use or for fertility preservation.

The fertility authoritys latest figures also showed that the multiple birth rate from IVF treatment has reached a record low.

Fertility clinics have been working to a target to reduce the number of women who fall pregnant with twins or triplets as multiple births are the biggest risk to IVF mothers and babies.

In 2018, only 8 per cent of IVF births resulted in a multiple birth.

Around 54,000 patients had IVF treatment in 2018 and the average birth rate per embryo transferred for all IVF patients was 23 per cent.

The HFEA found age is still a key factor in IVF outcomes, with younger patients reporting higher success rates.

Patients under 35 had a birth rate of 31 per cent per embryo transferred compared with 5 per cent for patients aged 43 and above.

Its report states that clinical improvements have led to increased chances of a live birth for all patients below 43 years old.

Higher birth rates were seen among women over the age of 40 when they used donor eggs in treatment, it added.

While fertility treatment is never a guarantee for a baby, we are pleased to see that birth rates have increased over the years and the average birth rate is now steady at 23 per cent, said HFEA chair Sally Cheshire.

Whilst this leaves many couples without their longed for family after treatment, these small year-on-year increases are important for the sector to build on.

Ever more patients are deciding to freeze their eggs and embryos and although still a relatively small part of fertility treatment overall, freezing techniques are now much more common with improved freezing technology and better success rates using frozen embryos.

Sarah Norcross, director of fertility and genomics charity, the Progress Educational Trust (PET), said the increase in egg freezing showed women now see social egg freezing as a valid reproductive choice.

This increase also highlights the pressing need for the Government to act now to change the 10-year storage limit for social egg freezing before hundreds more women face the stark choice of having to destroy their frozen eggs and perhaps their best chance of becoming a biological mother, she added.

For Dr Emily Grossman, freezing her eggs at the age of 38 was the best decision she ever made.

Now 41, the science broadcaster, author and educator explains it hadnt occurred to her to start getting worried about her fertility until she was in her mid-30s.

Dr Grossman had attended a talk at the Cheltenham Science Festival where she learned that from the age of 35 a womans fertility drops really rapidly.

She was dating at the time but had not yet met someone with whom she wanted to start a family.

It was a few years later when she really started to feel the constant ticking of my biological clock.

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place do I wait until Im in the right relationship, until I feel ready and risk leaving it too late to be able to conceive, or do I rush into it now with perhaps the wrong partner, she says.

Then I heard about the possibility of egg freezing. I realise this isnt an opportunity thats open to everybody in the sense it is expensive and it is difficult and challenging to find the time to go through a physical process like that but actually its the best decision Ive ever made.

Dr Grossman, who completed four rounds of egg freezing, says she started to feel relief almost as soon as the process had started.

Knowing that although I didnt have absolute certainty that I could rely on this method, she says, but that I had a back-up, which took the pressure off having to find the right person immediately and straight away start a family.

Dr Grossman said she welcomed the increase in people freezing their eggs or embryos, saying it reflected the fact that the stigma is being removed from women taking control of their fertility.

In the past, women would only start to looking into egg freezing or IVF at a time when it was already too late because by that time their fertility had already dropped, she says.

If we can start having the conversation earlier so that women in their 30s start to become aware of this which is what we are seeing happen then we actually make it far more likely that women are going to freeze their eggs at a time when its more likely it will lead to having a child.

Its great that the numbers are going up and I think this reflects an increasing openness in society to women having the conversation about fertility and the increasing possibility for women to be able to break through that taboo and step away from the stigma of being a women in your mid to late 30s who hasnt had a child yet.

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Number of people choosing to freeze their eggs or embryos surges 523% in five years - iNews