Women who opted to freeze their eggs in the hope of delaying motherhood are now facing a desperate race to protect them from destruction under a controversial ten-year storage rule.

A Glasgow fertility clinic says it has already had to discard a number of stored eggs because of the legal clause, potentially shattering women’s hopes of having their own biological child.

The Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine has also indicated that it currently has a number of eggs in storage which will reach their 10-year limit next year, leaving the women affected with the dilemma of what to do with their stored eggs.

In some cases it could mean the women face having their eggs fertilised using donor sperm which would extend the storage period but deprive their chance to use a partner’s sperm in the future. It also raises the issue of being able to use the embryos in the future without the permission of the donor.

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The other option is for women to move their frozen eggs abroad, which would then mean they have to undergo any future treatment in another country.

It's understood the clinic is currently working with at least one woman whose frozen eggs face being destroyed unless a solution can be found.

Leading expert in fertility treatment at Glasgow University and founder of the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Professor Richard Fleming, has now written to UK Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price branding the time limit as both discriminatory and unscientific, and calling for an urgent review.

He said: “The consequence of this unjust and discriminatory regulation is that women who were wise enough to freeze their eggs as a precaution when young, following forward thinking advice, are now facing agonising decisions of what to do with their stored eggs at the end of the storage period.”

His call comes after the issue was raised earlier this month in a bill introduced to the House of Lords by Baroness Ruth Deech QC. The Storage Period for Gametes Bill aims to extend the time limit that egg and sperm can be kept frozen.

Baroness Deech has called for the government to “show compassion” and give women hope by relaxing the ten-year limit.

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Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, women who have undergone medical treatment likely to affect their fertility can freeze their eggs for 55 years, regardless of how old they are at the time the eggs are frozen.

However, a woman who opts to freeze her eggs for “social” reasons, can only do so for 10 years. After that, the eggs must either be fertilised or destroyed.

Ironically, storage can be extended if they have become “prematurely infertile”, usually as a result of cancer treatment or surgery to remove the ovaries.

In many cases women who have paid several thousands of pounds to store their eggs while they pursue careers or for other social reasons are being confronted by the dilemma at a stage in life when their fertility has declined – leaving them with few options for a biological family.