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<\/p>\nWomen should consider preserving their eggs before the age of 25 in case of problems conceiving, according to the UK boss of pharmaceutical giant Merck Healthcare.<\/p>\n
Doina Ionescu, who has been managing director of the German drugs group in the UK and Ireland since 2020, said she is encouraging her 22-year-old daughter Maria to freeze her eggs and would advise any young woman to do the same.<\/p>\n
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ms Ionescu, 57, said: ‘Awareness of fertility starts with education and clearly the younger you are the better chance you have at having a healthy child. I am encouraging my daughter, who is 22, to preserve her eggs before the age of 25. The age of the eggs is really crucial.’<\/p>\n
She added men ‘need educating as well as young women’ on the importance of thinking about fertility in their twenties. Ionescu said she regretted putting off starting a family until her thirties in order to concentrate on her career.<\/p>\n
‘I have personal experience. I have one daughter. I would have liked to have had more and to have been younger when I had her,’ she said. ‘In my twenties, I wanted to have a career, I didn’t want to have a child.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Doina Ionescu has told the Mail on Sunday that women should consider preserving their eggs before the age of 25 in case of problems conceiving<\/p>\n
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Speaking in an exclusive interview, Ms Ionescu, 57, said: ‘Awareness of fertility starts with education and clearly the younger you are the better chance you have at having a healthy child (file image)\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said in the 1980s and 1990s, she and other ambitious women in her age group ‘were so driven by professional achievement’.<\/p>\n
‘I put off having a child until my thirties and then I kind of struggled a bit,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘This generation is much more aware than I was.’<\/p>\n
Egg preservation rose by 64 per cent between 2019 and 2021 according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average cost of freezing eggs is \u00a3,5,000, plus a \u00a3300 annual storage fee.<\/p>\n
Thawing, fertilising and implanting them for pregnancy costs another \u00a35,000 at least \u2013 and success is not guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Research also suggests few women use their frozen eggs. Of those who do, the chances of becoming pregnant could decrease depending upon their age at the time of freezing.<\/p>\n
Egg preservation is not normally available on the NHS unless women are undergoing medical treatment that could affect their fertility, for instance for cancer.<\/p>\n
Merck is this month launching a scheme to pay for fertility treatment for its staff in the UK.<\/p>\n