An insurance policy with no guarantee - the complex issue of egg freezing in sport

Key points

• England netball player Geva Mentor froze her eggs in 2019 at age 35 while living in Melbourne.
• Chelsea and the Spanish Football Federation have recently announced support for players wanting to freeze their eggs.
• Experts warn egg freezing offers no guarantee of future pregnancy and raises questions about time away from sport and anti-doping rules.

England netball's most decorated player, Geva Mentor, has described the physical and emotional toll of freezing her eggs in 2019. Mentor, who won 175 international caps and represented England at six World Cups, said she woke up one morning unable to stand and was bent over in two, barely able to walk.

Mentor, who was 35 and living in Melbourne at the time, said she wanted to preserve her fertility because she had always wanted a family and did not know what impact elite sport might have had on it. She chose to undergo the procedure during the off-season so her body could recover before returning to training.

What the procedure involved

Mentor said she continued training through pre-season and felt no effects until the final injection that releases eggs for extraction. The retrieval, performed under sedation or general anaesthetic and typically lasting 15 to 30 minutes, collected 43 eggs. She said it felt like 43 golf balls had been shoved into her lower region, and that her vaginal wall was pierced 43 times, putting her at risk of bleeding and blood clots.

Mentor was released from hospital the same day but could not return to full training for two weeks due to heavy bleeding. She later conceived naturally but said she has no regrets about freezing her eggs, which remain stored for possible future use. She described the process as an insurance policy.

I remember waking up in the morning and I couldn't stand. I was bent over in two. I could barely walk.

— Geva Mentor

Support and concerns

Chelsea and the Spanish Football Federation recently announced fertility support for players. BBC Sport understands Chelsea's fertility fund is worth £189,000, shared among 27 players, about £7,000 each. Former Chelsea goalkeeper Carly Telford, now a commercial manager at the club, said players can access fertility testing, egg freezing and IVF, with their own pot of money to use whenever they like.

Professor Kirsty Elliott-Sale, who heads the Centre for Excellence for Women in Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University, said she is delighted for any player who benefits but warned egg freezing is not a guarantee of motherhood. She said fertility, pregnancy and maternity provision must be as well funded as egg freezing, and that questions remain over how long athletes should take away from sport and whether clubs will cover storage and later treatment. She also noted some fertility drugs are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, requiring athletes to seek a Therapeutic Use Exemption.