The UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 requires that human gametes (eggs and sperm) and embryos collected and stored by fertility clinics be destroyed after ten years, except in cases of premature infertility. This time limit applies to women often referred to as ‘social’ egg freezers irrespective of the age of the woman when the ten-year limit is reached; it applies equally to women who froze eggs when aged 25 and those who froze eggs at 45.

Salima Budhani and Theodora Middleton of Bindmans LLP are advising a number of women in relation to test case litigation which aims to challenge the ten-year limit. They set out the case for change in an article for Bionews.