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Preserving your fertility as a trans or non-binary person
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Give yourself the freedom to choose
The decision to start a family can often feel overwhelming, particularly if you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community whose pathway to parenthood can take many different routes.
If you’re a trans or non-binary person who is planning on having gender-affirming surgery, either now or later on, it’s worth thinking about your future fertility options.
Fertility preservation for trans men and non-binary people
Preserving your fertility means freezing your gametes or reproductive tissue for use in fertility treatments later on. For trans men and non-binary people with eggs, this means undergoing a partial IVF cycle – this involves a two-week course of hormone medication to stimulate egg growth followed by a gamete retrieval procedure under mild sedation.
Due to the decline in the quality and quantity of a person’s eggs, we recommend you freeze your gametes sooner rather than later. We also recommend that fertility preservation happens before you start gender-affirming treatment, however, it may still be possible to preserve your fertility after.
We understand that this could mean postponing or temporarily stopping hormone treatment which can be a difficult decision. We’re here to support you no matter what, get in touch and we can talk you through your options.
A fertility assessment will help us determine whether you have any fertile gametes that can be frozen and stored for future use. Typically, this includes an AMH (anti-Mullerian hormone) blood test and AFC (antral follicle count) ultrasound scan. Together, these provide an accurate measure of your fertility health and your likely response to the medication used in fertility treatment.
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How does fertility preservation work?
What to Expect.
To freeze your gametes, we’ll take you through the following steps:
1. Suppressing the natural menstrual cycle.
A two-week course of hormone medication will be administered at home via injection to stop natural hormone production and control when your gametes are released.
2. Stimulating the ovaries.
Further medication will be given to stimulate gamete production. This increases the chance of more gametes being collected.
3. Monitoring progress.
A scan will be performed to check the development of the follicles that produce the eggs. This will determine when the eggs are collected.
4. Gamete retrieval.
Once the follicles have reached the correct size, an injection will be given to mature the gametes for collection. A needle is then gently guided through the vaginal wall to capture the eggs one by one. Don’t worry, you will be sedated for this part of the procedure to ensure no pain or discomfort.
5. Gamete freezing.
Any viable gametes are then frozen using a method called vitrification and stored safely for use in future fertility treatments.
How much does it cost?
You’ll receive a detailed breakdown of your treatment costs during your consultation. However, the breakdown of a typical gamete freezing cycle is as follows:
Step one: Fertility assessment
AMH blood test and ultrasound scan... £460
Step two: Gamete freezing cycle
Gamete freezing (including retrieval and freezing)... £4300
Step three: Storage
Annual storage... £350
The medication you require throughout the freezing process will be an additional cost.
You can find a detailed price list for all treatments and procedures on your chosen TFP Fertility clinic page.
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Fertility preservation for trans women and non-binary people
Preserving your fertility as a trans woman or non-binary person with sperm is more straightforward and less invasive than the process for trans men and non-binary people with eggs.
We recommend preserving your fertility before you start gender-affirming treatment, however, it may still be possible to preserve your fertility after.
We understand that this could mean postponing or temporarily stopping hormone treatment which can be a difficult decision. We’re here to support you no matter, get in touch and we can talk you through your options.
A fertility assessment will help us determine whether you have any fertile gametes that can be frozen and stored for future use. For people with sperm, the main type of fertility test is the semen analysis which assesses sperm density (the number of sperm in your semen sample), mobility (how well they swim) and morphology (the size and shape).
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How does it work?
What to Expect.
A semen sample will need to provided so the analysis can be carried out. If you experience anxiety and cannot produce a sample at the clinic, you can take the pot home for a less clinical environment. You must ensure that we receive your sample within one hour of it being produced.
If you are unable to produce a sample because of difficulties with ejaculation, we can extract a sample using a procedure called surgical sperm retrieval.
The freezing process itself is fairly straightforward and involves the following steps:
1. Producing a semen sample for screening.
Following your initial fertility assessment, you’ll need to provide a further semen sample that will be screened for any infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatits C.
2. Producing a semen sample for freezing.
You’ll then need to produce a fresh sample which will be mixed with a cryoprotectant to protect the sperm from damage during freezing.
3. Separating the sperm.
Before the sperm is frozen, it will be divided into separate containers so that not all the sperm needs to be thawed at once and can be used in multiple treatments (if required).
4. Freezing the sperm.
Your samples are then rapidly cooled using a method called vitrification and stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen until you’re ready to use them.
How much does it cost?
You’ll receive a detailed breakdown of your treatment costs during your consultation. However, the breakdown of the cost is below:
Step one: Fertility assessment
Semen analysis... £195
Step two: Sperm freezing
Sperm freezing (including screening).. £650
Step three: Storage
Annual storage... £350
You can find a detailed price list for all treatments and procedures on your chosen TFP Fertility clinic page.
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