A fertility coach from Hitchin has appeared on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme to speak up about the emotional impact of treatments like egg freezing.

Sarah Holland spoke on a panel of fertility experts and women considering or using egg freezing on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Wednesday last week.

The Royal Council of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had that day urged caution to women who wished to freeze their eggs for “social reasons” – and Sarah said it was important to remember freezing eggs did not guarantee fertility in the future.

She told the show: “There’s no optimum path for everybody, but I believe that everyone should try and find their own unique way on their path to parenthood.

“In the early-30s age bracket now, there is this kind of hype – and it’s a hot topic, really, to think about freezing your eggs and seeing it as some kind of insurance policy that you will be able to have babies at a later date.

“We know that isn’t true. The statistics never would add up to 100 per cent security there.

“We’re at a time now where there are many different routes to parenthood. It is so different now from how it was a generation or two ago. Whether that is a woman in her early 40s looking at egg donation, or looking at a route to parenthood through adoption, there are many different ways of creating a family now.

“There’s no optimal way. I think it’s up to each individual woman to find that.”

Sarah has her own two boys aged 10 and five, through both birth and adoption following her own fertility struggles.

She has been a fertility coach for 14 years, supporting women and couples through paths to parenthood including dealing with infertility, IVF treatment, egg and sperm donation, adoption and the hot topic of egg freezing.

“As the many ways that we can create a family become more complex, expensive and lengthy, the need for emotional support is at an all-time high,” she told the Comet. “However women often feel very alone in their fertility challenges and often have no-one to talk to.”

Sarah has run online fertility support groups for years, and is starting a new in-person group in Hitchin this September.

The new group holds its first meeting on Friday, September 28, at 7.30pm. To find out more, call Sarah on 07981 231392 or email mail@fertilemindset.com.