Fears more women could be robbed of the chance to ever have children: Fertility regulator warns other clinics may have used the same ‘defective’ product that destroyed frozen eggs and embryos from up to 136 women at a leading NHS clinic

A growing sandal that left dozens of women facing the heartbreaking loss of a potential child could spread to other British fertility clinics.

Yesterday it was revealed that 136 women underwent IVF treatment at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London may have lost its frozen eggs and embryos.

A problem with the solution used in the freezing process means that the valuable material women who pinned their hopes on a biological child may not survive the thawing process.

Regulators have admitted that the same solution ‘may have been distributed to other clinics’, raising the prospect of more women and couples being affected.

Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA, said women and couples should contact their clinic for more information.

“We are aware that this affected product may have been distributed to other UK clinics, although the HFEA is currently not aware of any other approved clinic where patients have been affected,” she said.

‘We realize that every incident can be important for patients.

‘We advise patients to contact their own clinic to raise any questions or concerns as the clinic is best placed to advise individuals on how they may or may not be affected.’

Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust PET, a charity representing people affected by infertility, said we need to know if women in other clinics are also affected.

“It will be distressing for women with frozen eggs to learn that, due to issues beyond their control, their eggs may not survive the thawing process,” she said.

‘We need to gain a better understanding of what exactly went wrong, whether patients in other clinics are affected, and what the relevant regulators – including the HFEA and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency – are doing about it.

‘We also need reassurance, both from regulators and clinics, that there are processes in place to notify patients in a timely manner if something goes wrong.’

She also condemned the delay between Guy’s knowledge of the problem in March last year and only informing patients in recent weeks.

“There was a terrible delay of about a year between this problem becoming known and affected patients being notified,” she said.

Cancer patients who subsequently had their uterus surgically removed are among the women affected.

Treatment for some types of cancer can leave women infertile, meaning they may be recommended to freeze their eggs beforehand.

News of the blunder was only communicated to patients in the past two weeks.

The hospital, which learned of the error in March last year, blamed the delay in communicating the problem to patients on confusion over which specific batches were affected.

All affected women had eggs or embryos frozen at the clinic in the fall of 2022, between September and October.

The clinic, which is one of the most advanced of its kind in the country, takes in both NHS and private patients, charging the latter thousands of pounds for IVF treatment and hundreds of pounds for egg and embryo cryopreservation.

Patient leaflets quote the cost of IVF embryo freezing at £4,750 and the annual storage charge for cryopreservation at £350.

A letter to the women, seen by The Times, informed them that their eggs and embryos “may not survive the thawing process” due to a manufacturing error in the bottles of solution used to originally freeze them.

Currently, only the unit at Guy’s is known to have been affected.

But the UK’s fertility treatments regulator says the specific product may have been distributed to other UK clinics, meaning more problems could be uncovered in the future.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HEFA) is actively investigating the incident.

The delay between when the incident occurred and when the women discovered the mistake means some may run out of extra eggs to freeze, effectively dashing their hopes of ever becoming a biological parent .

Even those who may still have the option for further IVF treatments may face vastly greater problems.

The chance of successful IVF decreases rapidly as women age, from 32 percent for women under 35 to just 4 percent for women over 44, declining by about 6 to 7 percent every few years.

Guy’s has apologized for the delay in communicating the issue and has offered counseling to the women.

A letter to affected patients said the Trust had been ‘made aware of a production issue with some solution bottles that may have been used to freeze eggs and embryos in September and October 2022’, The times reported.

It continues: ‘This means there is a risk that eggs and embryos frozen in the affected solution will not survive the thawing process and may not be able to be used in the treatment.’

Guy’s Assisted Conception Unit treats approximately 2,000 patients per year.

Women affected by the loss of the eggs and embryos say they are devastated.

One, who spoke anonymously, said: ‘The doctor told me that the eggs I had frozen are probably not viable due to a faulty freezing process. It’s been devastating.

“It’s traumatizing for those poor women to hear that their frozen eggs can’t be used.”

She called on Guy’s to cover the costs of further fertility treatments.

A Trust spokesperson said: ‘We have contacted everyone affected and apologize for the delay and any inconvenience this may have caused.

‘We are supporting those who may be affected, including through our advice service, and urge anyone with concerns to speak to us directly on the dedicated telephone line we have set up.’

The Conception Unit became aware of the problem just weeks after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency issued an alert about problems with the freezing solution.

The HFEA recorded more than 4,200 egg storage cycles in 2021, almost double the 2,500 in 2019.

It is thought the number of women freezing their eggs surged during the Covid-19 crisis as many feared they were running out of time to have a baby.

The pandemic halted dating for single women for months, leaving some unsure when they would meet the right partner to start a family.

Egg freezing involves following the initial steps of IVF, which takes two to three weeks.

Women use medications to stimulate their egg production and mature the eggs.

The eggs are then collected under general anesthesia, mixed with a freezing solution and frozen.

Seven to fourteen eggs are collected from most patients under 38 years of age. On average, women lose about 1,000 eggs per month.