After your egg retrieval, while you may find yourself pursuing career goals, traveling the world, or looking for your life partner - and living life on your own terms - your eggs will be kept frozen for potential future use. Learn exactly how eggs are stored and what your options for storage are, including the advantages and disadvantages of storage onsite at your clinic versus storage offsite at a third-party facility. By understanding important strategies to help you save time and money, you can be informed about the various storage options and have peace of mind when making immediate decisions about where to store and future decisions about possibly using the eggs for IVF.
How are eggs stored?
Once the eggs are retrieved from your ovaries, they will undergo ultrarapid freezing called vitrification and be frozen at sub-zero temperatures. Vitrification is a process that exposes your eggs to high concentrations of cryoprotectants - substances that prevent biological tissue, like eggs, from damage during freezing - for a short period of time. This allows for “flash freezing” and prevents ice crystal formation within your eggs (since eggs have a high water concentration) and prevents damage to the genetic structure of your eggs. Your frozen eggs are stored in liquid nitrogen tanks that are not controlled by electricity, which reduces potential issues with power failures, at extremely cold temperatures (-196℃). The tanks are also equipped with monitors that can detect temperature changes less than 1℃ and alarms that will alert to damage with the tank. These electric monitors typically have backup batteries in the event of power failure.
How long can eggs legally be frozen?
In the USA, there is no time limit for how long you can keep your eggs frozen. Some other countries have laws that only allow frozen eggs to be stored for a certain number of years. For example, in India, eggs can only be stored for up to 10 years, after which they are destroyed. In Greece, UAE, and Singapore, the initial storage limit is 5 years, but this is often extendable on a case-by-case basis. The UK has a storage time limit of up to 55 years. Check out the Guide to Egg Freezing Around the World for information on storage limits for individual countries.
Do the eggs decrease in quality the longer they are frozen?
There is no evidence that the health or viability of your eggs decreases over time. There have been studies of women who return as late as 10-14 years after egg retrieval to use their eggs and have a successful pregnancy. Keep in mind that the quality of the egg itself does not decline while being frozen over time, but maternal age continues to increase. Because the quality of the egg doesn’t decline, many women are motivated to freeze their eggs to “stop the clock” on the age of their eggs. Despite your eggs not changing in quality while they are frozen, maternal age is still an important factor for having a baby with frozen eggs, so it’s important to keep in mind that your maternal age (the age at which you get pregnant) will continue to increase.
The eggs are stored in liquid nitrogen tanks at -196°C.
Studies show that vitrified eggs have around a 90% survival rate during the thawing process compared to around a 65% survival rate in the previously utilized “slow freezing process”.
Where are frozen eggs stored?
You’ll typically have three options of where to store your eggs:
On-site at your fertility clinic
Off-site at your fertility clinic’s preferred storage facility
Off-site at a third-party storage facility
Some clinics store eggs on-site, while some clinics have a specific storage facility they partner with. Despite clinics encouraging on-site storage or with their partner storage facility, you always have the option to transfer your eggs to any third-party lab of your choice. The various options have pros and cons, so educating yourself on the differences will allow you to make the best decision for both your current financial situation and your future self (if you choose to do IVF with your eggs).
Storing Your Frozen Eggs On-site At Your Fertility Clinic (or Preferred Storage Facility)
Once the egg retrieval process is completed, it is often possible to store the eggs at that same clinic and have it readily available for future IVF use in the same clinic. This is a convenient option for many women since the frozen eggs do not have to be physically moved to another facility and no further logistical work is required. Storage costs at clinics can vary drastically and depend on the clinic. Not all clinics offer long-term on-site storage, and you may need to transfer your eggs to an external storage company if you do not plan to use them within a certain period of time. Clinics may not have the space or personnel to manage long-term storage of eggs on-site. Be sure to check out the Freeze Health Compare Clinics tool to compare annual storage costs for 450+ clinics in the US and around the world.
84% of US fertility clinics offer on-site, long-term storage.*
*Derived from clinic-reported pricing data from 58 US clinics in Freeze Health’s Compare Clinics database.
Cost: $232 - $1,140 per year
Based on the national data from 450+ US clinics listed in Freeze Health's Compare Clinics tool, the annual frozen egg storage costs for US clinics range between $232 to $1,440, with the average cost being $663.13 and the median being $600. Storage costs can vary by city - as an example, the average annual storage cost in the NYC metro area is $824.70 (range: $250 to $1,200) while in the average cost to store eggs in the LA area is $516.66 (range: $300 to $1,260).
74% of clinics offer storage fees in their single egg freezing cycle cost.*
*Derived from clinic-reported pricing data from 58 US clinics in Freeze Health’s Compare Clinics database. While this can range up to 36 months, it’s most common for clinics to include 1 year of storage.
Pros:
Less paperwork. By keeping your eggs in the fertility clinic or their preferred lab, you can avoid additional legal forms, paperwork, and logistical coordination required by shipping companies to move your eggs.
Easy process if or when you decide to use your eggs for IVF at the fertility clinic in which you've frozen your eggs. Since all your information is already stored in the clinic’s system and no shipping is required, thawing the frozen eggs and undergoing IVF in the same place allows for a quicker timeline and a more straightforward IVF process.
Cons:
The list price is typically higher than a third-party lab’s annual storage fee, but this cost can be negotiated down in several ways. Ask the clinic to price-match a lower storage cost found somewhere else and/or inquire if the annual cost can be reduced by paying for multiple years of storage upfront.
More friction and paperwork if/when you decide to use your eggs for IVF at a different fertility clinic. To move your eggs from one clinic to another for IVF requires starting from scratch in terms of having a new medical team, attending appointments as a new patient, and completing forms for the transport. You should also check with the new clinic to make sure they will accept your eggs for IVF. Some clinics only accept eggs for IVF that were frozen at their clinic.
Storing Your Frozen Eggs at a
Third-Party Storage Provider
While most clinics offer storage of eggs onsite at the clinic facility itself, many women opt to move their frozen eggs offsite to a third-party storage provider for cheaper costs and longer storage. Reprotech, Fairfax Cryobank, and Ovation Fertility offer secure storage for biomaterials and are commonly used facilities that partner with fertility centers across the US.
Cost: $350 - $450 per year
Pros:
More cost-effective. Third-party storage providers are typically cheaper than storing at a fertility clinic. Considering these labs’ main business line is providing cryo storage of different biological material, they’re able to offer lower prices due to achieving economies of scale.
More flexibility in your choice of which fertility clinic to do IVF. Having your eggs in an offsite storage facility allows for a variety of choices of where to do IVF. Third-party labs are well-versed and very accustomed to working with a multitude of fertility clinics if you choose to ship them to a different fertility clinic for IVF.
Cons:
Additional paperwork. In addition to the forms you filled out at the fertility clinic where the retrieval procedure was done, you'll have to complete more forms for the offsite storage facility as well.
Risk of something happening to the eggs in transit. While there is a very small risk, there is always a chance of accidents or human errors when transporting the eggs between facilities.
Future paperwork and additional logistical planning are required to coordinate the transfer of frozen eggs to fertility clinics if you choose to do IVF. These labs are for storage only and do not have procedural facilities for IVF.
Tips for Saving Money on Storage
Just as there are ways to save on egg freezing procedure costs, detailed in the Guide to Freezing Your Eggs for Free (or Extremely Discounted), there are strategies to save money on storage costs, including through pre-tax healthcare spending or through deals and discounts through the clinic or storage provider itself.
Look into financial assistance programs. For example, Reprotech offers Verna’s Purse, a financial assistance program through Reprotech which provides discounted long-term storage for patients who face financial hardship with eggs already in storage. Discounts offered include up to 70% off on annual storage for 3 years and reduced costs for specimen shipping from another facility to Reprotech, upon completion of the application.
Use your HSA/FSA card. Pre-tax money with your HSA and FSA accounts can be used for annual storage fees. Depending on your personal tax situation, this can provide savings of up to ~35% since you are using money that does not have income taxes taken out of it. The exact percentage cash savings depends on your income tax bracket.
Ask for a multiple year discount. Some fertility clinics and labs will request lower annual costs if you pay for multiple years of storage up front in a package deal.
Ask if any storage is included in the single cycle cost. Some clinics provide storage, commonly 1 year, included in the egg freezing cycle cost.
Put the paperwork on the clinic. Time is money. Don’t feel like you need to do all the heavy lifting navigating through agreements and forms. Work with your nurse or clinic contact to have them handle this paperwork and simplify it for you.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate. There are always lower storage cost options, so ask if the clinic or lab will match the price of another lab’s storage cost. Clinics want to keep your eggs at either their clinic or storage partners, so they are by default the easy option if you choose to do IVF in the future. Use this to your advantage.
Final Recommendations for Storing Your Frozen Eggs
Ensure your contact and payment information is up-to-date with your clinics and lab. This is so you can easily be contacted via phone or email, ensuring that the frozen eggs remain your property, and so you can pay the storage fees through autopay. Some facilities reserve the right to discard the eggs if you have unpaid bills and/or you are unable to be reached.
Keep all egg storage invoices. If you don’t use your HSA/FSA at the time, you can submit expenses for HSA/FSA reimbursement by providing the receipt retroactively. Also, saving a record of your receipts will help your accountant maximize any possible deductions for medical expenses.