As fertility treatments are on the rise, patchy legislation across Europe leaves thousands of eggs and embryos in limbo.
Women are born with all the eggs they will have. From their first period, reserves begin declining, decreasing faster after the age of 35 and reaching critically low levels by 40.
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At the same time, in Europe, people are having children later than ever. The average maternal age is now 30.9, with fertility rates at a record low of 1.46 children per woman amid increased cost of living and job instability.
In response, more people are turning to fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and egg and embryo freezing, hoping to preserve the eggs at their quality peak for future use – this is known as “social freezing”.
The global egg freezing and embryo banking market size accounted for $5.41 billion (€4.55 billion) in 2024 and is anticipated to grow to around $25.63 billion (€22.1 billion) by 2034.
Social egg freezing conservation often has different rules than medical freezing, which is aimed at women with fertility-threatening diseases such as cancer or endometriosis.
“We need to think about egg freezing like an insurance policy you take”, Saghar Kasiri, head director of fertility services at Cryos, the world’s largest egg and sperm bank, told Euronews Health.
“Social egg freezing is almost like an insurance policy, you put some eggs away and hope that you find the right partner or are at a stage where you can get pregnant naturally. If you can't, then you'll have a backup”, she added.
This process also brings new challenges: what happens when women no longer want those eggs or embryos?
Patients later having children naturally, suffering illness, relationship changes, career shifts, or simply a change their mind means women who froze eggs for a specific timeframe may no longer wants them.
The same applies to frozen embryos. In an average IVF cycle for a woman under 35, six to ten embryos are produced, of which normally one is transferred and the rest frozen.
Medically speaking, frozen embryos can remain viable indefinitely with modern vitrification – flash-freezing in liquid nitrogen at -196°C – which prevents ice crystal damage.
Blood, plasma, and other tissues are discarded under very strict sanitary conditions if unused. Embryos and eggs, however, often evoke emotional attachment and moral dilemmas.
Embryos occupy a grey area in regulation and an even greyer area in data collection. There is no precise number of “abandoned” eggs or embryos, nor aggregated data on discards or donations.
Patchy laws across Europe
European countries vary widely in their approach. The United Kingdom has no limits on the number of embryos that can be created or transferred and allows frozen embryo storage for up to 55 years. If the patients don’t want to use them, the country allows donation, use in research, or discarding.
Poland’s 2015 Infertility Treatment Act bans destruction. After 20 years, the donation to other couples is mandatory.
In Italy, unused embryos must remain frozen indefinitely. The country doesn’t allow donation for research or destruction. Maria Rosaria Campitiello, head of the Department of Prevention at Italy's Health Ministry, estimated over 10,000 abandoned embryos in 2025.
On the opposite side, Sweden requires embryos to be destroyed after a storage limit of 10 years.
The recent European regulation for Substances of Human Origin (SoHO), aimed at regulating quality and safety standards of human substances, explicitly excludes embryos from its scope.
When there are options, still difficult
Even in the countries where donation and destruction are legal, the procedure is still complicated.
The Spanish Fertility Association estimated in 2023 that 60,005 out of the 668,082 embryos in the country were “abandoned”.
In Spain, clinics must periodically request renewal or modification of patients’ original choices. If, after two attempts, patients don’t give a response, embryos become the clinic’s responsibility and they can be donated, used for research, or destroyed.
The country has emerged as Europe’s top destination for egg freezing, with no age restrictions and no defined storage duration limits.
With many patients coming from abroad, getting a hold of them and keeping registries can be complicated.
Yet, bureaucracy is not the only hurdle.
“Frozen embryos, especially if the egg and the sperm are from the patients, are likely to be discarded. If they have chosen a donor, especially if it's a double donation, they are more open to donating it to another family,” Kasiri added.
She explained that, as it is their genetic material, patients are often reluctant to donate it to others.
