Brussels hospital helps woman get pregnant with frozen egg

For the first time in Belgium, a woman fell pregnant using one of her frozen eggs, thanks to a technique implemented by the fertility clinic at UZ Brussels hospital in Jette.

Until now the technique of egg freezing – or oocyte cryopreservation - was mainly used for cancer patients who feared that they would be infertile after treatment. This is the first case of a woman getting pregnant after choosing the technique for a different reason.

"The patient in question was single when she chose the technique," says Dominic Stoop, fertility doctor at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at UZ Brussels. "She met her partner shortly thereafter, but was unable to conceive and therefore decided to use her frozen eggs.”

"The ideal age is between 30 and 35," said Stoop. "After that, the number of eggs that we can use starts to taper off."

UZ Brussels offers oocyte cryopreservation since 2009. The hospital’s databank currently holds the frozen oocytes of about 200 single women.