The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee

Egg Freezing For the Future with Dr. Anne Poliness of City Fertility

• Helen Zee • Season 2

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We sit down with Dr. Anne Poliness to unpack egg freezing—who it helps, what the process looks like, and how to decide if and when it fits your life. We clear up myths, talk safety and consent, and share practical steps that lower stress and increase choice.

Discover and consider your choices when:
• Elective and medical reasons to freeze eggs 
• Relief that comes from informed choices 
• Process overview: stimulation, retrieval, freezing 
• Safety, overstimulation risk, and monitoring 
• Storage duration, consent extensions, donation options 
• When not to freeze and better timing choices 
• Moving eggs across borders and logistics 
• Solo parent pathways and access to treatment 
• Endometriosis considerations and preservation timing

Dr Anne Poliness has extensive experience in gynaecology and infertility including treating all fertility issues. She treats each patient as an individual to help and support them on their fertility. Anne listens to patient's needs and is dedicated and motivated to problem solve fertility issues. No fertility question is too simple or difficult to work through.

Social Media Links :
Facebook- City Fertility
Facebook- Rainbow Fertility
Instagram - @cityfertilitycentre
@rainbowfertility


Liz Walton:

Welcome to the Home of Fertility, a space for real conversations and expert insights about fertility, healing and creating family. I'm Liz Walton.

Helen Zee:

And I'm Helen Z. We are two mums who've walked this path and are passionate about supporting you on your journey. Emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Liz Walton:

We talk about it all. Fertility treatments, holistic support, relationships, mindset, and the emotional highs and lows.

Helen Zee:

Because sometimes the missing piece lies in someone else's story, in the quiet wisdom of the body, or in a breakthrough that's finally made for you.

Liz Walton:

We are so glad you are here. Let's dive in.

Helen Zee:

Dr. Anne treats each patient as an individual to help support them on their fertility, and she listens to patients' needs and is dedicated and motivated to problem solve their fertility issues. No question is too simple or difficult to work through. And today we are going to be touching on some of those questions in regards to egg freezing. Love them, Dr. Anne. Thanks so much for having me, Helen. Absolute pleasure. Egg freezing. Now, this is this is a relatively um, well, it's been around for quite a while, but more and more people can access egg freezing now. Uh, from what started off many years ago as being the heteronormative state of uh freezing your eggs or having a medical condition, we now know that this is explored out, expanded out for a lot more people accessing it. So can you tell us who is currently doing egg freezing? Sure.

Anne Poliness:

Well, it's certainly an evolving space. Even in the last five to ten years, we've seen a significant uptake of people wanting to consider egg freezing. And um, as you said, people were doing it for medical reasons in the past, uh, people who were um had, you know, uh unfortunately had a cancer or a disease state that meant they were going to have to have treatment soon that could reduce fertility, people with endemicosis, or people who were going to be medically transitioning and wanted to preserve the options to conceive in future. And um more and more we're seeking, we're seeing people seeking egg freezing who are doing it electively. They're finding that they're not in a position currently to look at having a child, but are wanting to have a child or children in the future. And that may be um uh because uh um they're not in a position to have a child right now, either um with a partner or with a donor or financially or wanting to travel or career progression. There's so many reasons that people want to look at egg freezing. And we're here to help and obviously work through with people, you know, what they're wanting to do and when. Um, and in many cases, people are going ahead with it and freezing eggs. And most patients who do it say to me, I feel so much more relieved. I was feeling um this was filling up a lot of headspace, I was feeling even sometimes a bit anxious about it. Now I feel much more empowered that I've I've made this choice and have gone through with it. Um and even if people haven't gone through with it, that they've workshopped it at least and and and worked through the decision making about egg freezing.

Helen Zee:

And I can imagine that your doors are open for people, even in the investigating state. It doesn't mean that if they walk through your doors, it's definitive that they need to do this.

Anne Poliness:

Absolutely. I think it's right. Many people come in um as part of the initial um step on the journey, saying, I just want to get an idea of um, you know, in investigations for fertility where I sit, what um, you know, get a cost uh estimate as well, understand how much it's gonna cost, understand the process, how much time does it take out of their you know, work schedule or busy life schedule. Um and uh, you know, how long can you keep the eggs? Like any, no questions too small. We certainly are here just to talk and and give it's a bit information gathering for the patients, yeah.

Helen Zee:

Beautiful. I know I've got a few questions based on what patients well clients have asked me in the past regarding egg freezing and me not necessarily knowing the updated information because I know that it changes. Um uh so we'll we'll tap into that in a moment. But who else can benefit from egg freezing, Dr. Ann?

Anne Poliness:

I think people who perhaps um are finding that uh again, they're wanting to have a child in the future, um, and they're um perhaps thinking, okay, well, I'm now 36, should I freeze some eggs now? And then I'm gonna start trying for a child at 38, and maybe I want a second child and I might have trouble when I'm 40. So it's it's a kind of a um, you know, um a backstop or you know, um extra chances that they can have, even if they are able to conceive naturally, but then have problems in the future afterwards.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, wonderful. And what is involved in egg freezing?

Anne Poliness:

So the first step in everything, I suppose, is preparation and uh making an informed choice. So getting um information regarding uh the injections, because it does uh mean taking daily injections of hormones for approximately two weeks, um, having a medical procedure uh to uh extract the eggs under sedation or an anesthetic. This is a vaginal approach uh with ultrasound, and then um the um eggs are frozen the same day as the uh as they're um harvested or picked up.

Helen Zee:

And there's also when you were talking about some of the other uh factors concerned about you know storing eggs, and that was one question that I had as well, is eggs can be stored for a certain amount of time, correct?

Anne Poliness:

Yeah, yeah. So most people um, you know, it's it's hard to predict the future, isn't it? Um most people who say um freeze their eggs at 35 will come back and use those eggs within 10 years. And there is a consenting process if, you know, say you uh consent for 10 years, but then, you know, say if someone was only 21 when they froze their eggs, they may not be ready to use them at 31. And so it's a consenting process for further storage. Um yeah, yeah. But but I must say most people will have used those eggs if they're going to within 10 years. But of course, some people don't need to use them. It's all it was always this backup plan for many people, and then they either conceive naturally or decide that their life journey does um does not mean having a child. So it's it's always this kind of uncertainty if if um if you're going to use them in the future for a lot of people.

Helen Zee:

And the choice is up to the individual about whether they discard those eggs or whether they they uh donate them, correct?

Anne Poliness:

Yes, yep, that's right. I mean, there's clearly never any pressure to, you know, just in the decision making of what to do with eggs that you aren't going to use yourself. Um, and some people, as you said, will donate them to uh you know, friend or someone they know that's uh having difficulty getting pregnant if they're not going to use them themselves.

Helen Zee:

Beautiful. I'd love to touch on with the egg freezing that there is a uh I'm gonna call it up front, but the misconception that you overstimulate to get so many more eggs out. But I'd love for you to talk to that to the listeners because we know I'm I'm prefacing an answer here, right? But when you go through a cycle, you're not getting all these extra eggs out that you've had as a backlog. Um, you're pretty much only maturing that that is in the follicles in that particular cycle, correct?

Anne Poliness:

Oh, that's that, yeah, that's exactly right.

Helen Zee:

So um a lot of people some people, I what I'd love to talk about this because I know that there's a misconception out there about being uh overstimulated, and but you're not going, you can't go taking out and stimulating um the preliminary eggs that would have come up in that cycle, and then the chosen one or two that would have gone to become fully matured eggs and an ovum, correct?

Anne Poliness:

Um yeah, so the um the eggs that can be stimulated are already around available for that cycle. So you can't get eggs for the future or the past. Um so yeah, so the concern that, you know, using up eggs for the future is not true. These eggs were destined to either be chosen or not chosen on that cycle. But um, the issue with hyperstimulation is that sometimes the medications will get too many of a good thing, if you like, too many eggs coming up. And there are certain medications we use to try and reduce the chance of getting hyperstimulation, which means becoming unwell from hormone changes of multiple eggs. It's not possible to eradicate the symptoms of hyperstimulation, but we do try very hard that the patients don't become unwell from the process. And that's certainly something we take very seriously.

Helen Zee:

Beautiful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wanted to bring that up because I know that some people can be misformed, misinformed. Um so yeah, thank you for that. Uh, Dr. Ann, are there any reasons not to do egg freezing?

Anne Poliness:

I think that um most people uh who have good health, it's available to them. I suppose if someone wasn't in good health or in good health at this time, perhaps they should not do it at that time. Um uh because obviously general, you know, not being well generally might affect egg health. Um and it might be better to delay, you know, three months until they're better or a certain number of months. Um and if people don't think they're going to uh uh I suppose if someone was about to try naturally, you'd say, well, perhaps, or was going to consider a sperm donor instead to have a baby this year, then that person really would be better off, you know, making those other life choices, meaning trying naturally if they had a partner with sperm, or looking at using a sperm donor, if that was their ultimate goal was to have a baby this year, then you would say, well, don't freeze the eggs, you know, perhaps look at the other options if that's what you're wanting to do, uh, and seeing you know how that that fits with their life plan.

Helen Zee:

Very good advice. You mentioned earlier about uh different reasons and choices for people wanting to um egg freeze. Are you still there, Dr. Ann? Yes, yes, okay, somehow I was something popped up on my screen just then asking me to reload. I went, not now. Not at all. Um some of the choices that people are making, and it might be, you know, career project uh uh progress or traveling. And I know that with our borders being so open, there is a fair bit of travel, even for Korea. And what about if a person is wanting to go um, you know, has egg frozen uh frozen their eggs, and then later on, whether it's through choice of living somewhere else or Korea, what happens to the eggs when the proximity of their body and their eggs are uh many thousands of kilometres away?

Anne Poliness:

Um, well, people can move their eggs to another country, and it depends on the laws of the country how easy or difficult that is. But most, you know, other kinds, certainly if people want to import their eggs into Australia, this you know, easy process. I mean, there is there is cost of of moving eggs um between countries, but there are um uh companies that do this, that's their job, you know, that that do all the paperwork. There's of course a lot of paperwork to do things like this between different countries. But we do see, as you said, a growing number of people who say have lived in, for example, US for a few years and want to bring their eggs back here. Um, and there are certain companies that manage manage that um and move eggs uh from different countries or different states of Australia.

Helen Zee:

Yeah. Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, beautiful. And that would be a separate conversation, right? Um, to be able to talk to the companies that can organize transit and storage between between facilities. Yeah.

Anne Poliness:

Um, although saying that, some people think, oh, it's a good idea, I'll come back to us to Melbourne for a holiday and uh come and don't eggs move and stuff to come and do drinks.

Helen Zee:

I I had a uh I spoke to uh a person um where they were saying that they were traveling between three countries to try and do their treatment. And so they had work commitments in London, but were traveling to Melbourne for all their treatments as well as chances of pregnancy with their partner. So yeah, they got to come back home regularly.

Anne Poliness:

Yeah, and some people have very, very uh busy uh lives internationally, you know, um partners working in one country, they're from here, they might move there for a while, they might move here for a while. So yeah, it's not possible to know exactly where you're gonna be living in five years for a lot of people. So if um if they uh are from here, um then yeah, uh it would make sense to freeze the eggs where you think you're gonna be in five years, but it's not predict that.

Helen Zee:

That's right, that's right. And when people know that there are choices and the flexibility in those choices, it's easier to make that decision up front about now is the time to it's it's right for me to consider egg freezing, knowing that there are there are options in the future if things, circumstances change. That's what yeah.

Anne Poliness:

I mean, if you've got a um a job opportunity to work overseas, then yeah, I'm a big fan of people you know making the most of uh different experiences and working in different countries. But of course, yeah, you kind of think um if that's in your early to mid-30s, then maybe egg freezing is something you want to do before you go.

Helen Zee:

What suggestions would you have for a person listening today in the preparation for coming in for a consult and egg freezing?

Anne Poliness:

I think that many people um uh, you know, it's the unknown, isn't it? There are people that may become a bit anxious about knowing or assessing fertility, you know, it can be quite a confronting um conversation, but you know, your GP can order the tests or we can order the tests for you and at least give you the information that you're wanting, uh good information about what's involved before you decide if you're going to go ahead or not. And many people do the assessment and think actually, no, I I'm gonna park this for you know six months. Now I've got the information I'm feeling uh well informed about the choice, and maybe I'll just park this for six months and come back to you later on when I've given you know things more time to digest and see how it sits with me. So it's really it's really about the um wanting to help people understand their fertility and their fertility choices.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, and that's the second part of that conversation is fertility choices, because I know that I've been when I speak to women who are choosing the solo mum journey, they say, I don't have a fertility problem. I've got a it's a choice that it's that I am making. So you could they're entering the program and and uh the procedure through a very different lens. It's like, no, I'm not, I don't struggle with my fertility. I'm making a choice to do this because this is the path that is needed to be able to become a mother.

Anne Poliness:

And that's right, and of course, there are choices um uh for people to make. Um and uh generally speaking, you'd say, well, the first part of any journey is to check, you know, that the tests are with normal range, you're expecting things to be normal if you have no history of gynecological issues. Um, and then yeah, it's not like you're sick and you need a diagnosis, you just need to access treatment.

Helen Zee:

Yeah. One other question that's coming up for me, and that that is around endometriosis and also egg freezing, like some some would what would your I and I know this is general advice, but for for people that have endometriosis and do want to experience um fertility, where does egg freezing sit in the in the plan?

Anne Poliness:

I think that if somebody has a gynecological history such as endometriosis, and this is not one size fits all, some people have endometriosis, have no trouble conceiving um in the future, and some people have endometriosis and have great difficulty conceiving. So it's unknown exactly what impact it would have on the an individual. And so if egg freezing was available and um accessible, I think it should be considered um definitely. And now maybe before people do you know quite complicated surgery that might involve the ovaries. I think it's definitely worth if you already have a gynecologist and have a history of endometriosis to talk to them about perhaps considering egg freezing sooner rather than later.

Helen Zee:

Thank you for talking to that. Thank you. And as you said, it's not a one size fits all, and and one of your uh gifts that you have is working with people, whether it's a a little or a uh a fertility issue or something that's a lot bigger, you tailor you tailor fit to the individual that that is under your care.

Anne Poliness:

Absolutely. And things, even in this in the one patient, things change. Circumstances change, what they're thinking about, their life choices change depending on what other factors are coming along. And then it's you know worth starting again, really, in the discussion of working through what they want to do.

Helen Zee:

Brilliant. Is there anything else that we haven't touched on regarding egg freezing that's come to mind that you would like to share on?

Anne Poliness:

Um, I I think it should obviously patients part of the consenting process and the education of and making an informed choice is that um even though um it seems very simple and straightforward, of course it is a medical procedure done with you know a great deal of care, but there is still a small risk involved to health of um the patient. They're having an anesthetic, they're having a stimulation of the ovaries. That yeah, it's it's um patients should be fully informed about the small but known risks of of doing medical procedures before they do them.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, great. Yeah, thank you. And we get to ask our uh people that we get to talk to if they have a superpower, what would that be? Do you would you like to answer that question for us?

Anne Poliness:

Well, um uh it would have to be to do with health because I'm in the health space. But I think that um probably it would be um the uh to have additional healing powers for people, like it would wouldn't that be such a great thing to be able to be a healer?

Helen Zee:

Yeah. Oh look, I say to I say to my clients that go through IVF treatment, etc., um, that the the people around you, the doctors, the anesitists, they're your earth angels. I say this all the time. It's like don't just think that it's something that's ethereal that you cannot see. The skills that have touched every single one of you on the shoulders to go and do this work and be available to be uh intermediaries and you know, I'll just say use the word mid midwives and help midwife this process through. So in my eyes and in my heart, you're already the healers. Because without that, it wouldn't be possible.

Anne Poliness:

That's such a lovely concept, isn't it? Thank you for sharing that. It's wonderful.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, I uh I say that regularly. And even when I get people to create a fertility altar, uh, and all it is it's living, breathing space where, like I've got an altar up here. So um as you walk past, or if you're thinking of something and then you see a leaf or a rock or or a feather falls when you're having a particular thought, put it on your altar. And I say to the people and and my clients that that are going through IVF, I want to see a representation of your packaging up there as well. And they're like, What? I'm like, it's all it's all included, it comes hand in hand. You are one person, you are one body experiencing the medicine, experiencing the faith and the hope of wanting to create a child. So all of it is welcome. This is this is all welcome. And I just come, I throw that lens in there, my friend.

Anne Poliness:

So yeah, that's very powerful, that sensory connection.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, yeah. Because in divorce, they don't think that it's just one thing and not another. It's like you're making your choices, and this is this is your medicine, and and the medical team are your earth angels. I hundred percent say that over and over again.

Anne Poliness:

And it's yeah, it's how you like your framework for fitting into the world and yeah, appreciate the people around you as well, isn't it?

Helen Zee:

Yeah. So I feel you've already got that superpower. Thank you. Oh, it's very kind. Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time and presence for this conversation. I know that the person listening uh who is interested in getting the information on egg freezing is a lot more well-informed than what they were before we started. So thank you.

Anne Poliness:

And thank you very much, Helen. That was a wonderful interaction. Yeah, thank you.

Helen Zee:

Thanks for joining us at the Homer Fertility. We hope today's episode brought you clarity, comfort, and connection.

Liz Walton:

If this podcast resonated, please share it. Leave a review or subscribe. This helps us support more people that are on this path.

Helen Zee:

And if you'd like to connect or share your story, find us on Instagram and Facebook at Australian Fertility Summit.

Liz Walton:

Remember the missing piece might be waiting in a story, your body's wisdom, or something new just made for you. Take care.