Storing frozen eggs typically costs $500 to $1,000 per year, but that annual fee is just one piece of a much larger financial picture. The total investment spans three phases: the initial retrieval cycle, years of ongoing storage, and the eventual cost of using those eggs. Understanding all three helps you plan realistically.
The Initial Egg Freezing Cycle
Before you’re paying for storage, you’re paying for the retrieval itself. A single egg freezing cycle runs $5,000 to $10,000, covering monitoring appointments, bloodwork, the egg retrieval procedure, and the initial freeze. On top of that, the hormone medications you inject over roughly 10 to 14 days cost $2,000 to $7,000 depending on the doses your body needs and which drug combinations your doctor prescribes.
That puts the realistic all-in cost for one cycle at $7,000 to $17,000. Some people need more than one cycle to bank enough eggs, especially those freezing later in their 30s when fewer eggs are typically retrieved per round. Each additional cycle carries roughly the same price tag, so two cycles could mean $14,000 to $34,000 before storage even begins.
Annual Storage Fees
Once your eggs are frozen, they’re kept in liquid nitrogen tanks at your clinic or a specialized cryopreservation facility. The annual fee for this ranges from $500 to $1,000, and many people store their eggs for a decade or more. At the lower end, ten years of storage adds $5,000 to your total. At the higher end, it’s $10,000.
Some clinics offer prepaid multi-year storage plans at a discount, bundling five or ten years into a single upfront payment. Others include the first year of storage in the retrieval cycle fee. It’s worth asking about both when comparing clinics, since the savings over a long storage period can be meaningful. Keep in mind that clinics can also raise their annual fees over time, and most storage agreements allow for periodic price adjustments.
The Cost of Actually Using Your Eggs
Storage is only useful if you eventually thaw and use those eggs, and that phase carries its own significant costs. When you’re ready, your eggs are warmed, then fertilized using a technique called ICSI, where sperm is injected directly into each egg. The thaw and fertilization step runs $3,000 to $5,000.
From there, costs continue to stack:
- Genetic testing of embryos: $3,000 to $6,000, if you choose to screen embryos before transfer
- Frozen embryo transfer: $3,000 to $5,000 for the procedure itself
- Medications to prepare for transfer: $1,000 to $3,000
All told, the return phase costs $10,000 to $19,000 or more. Not all frozen eggs survive the thaw, and not all that survive will fertilize or develop into viable embryos, so there’s no guarantee a single round of stored eggs will result in a pregnancy. This is an important factor when deciding how many eggs to freeze initially.
Total Lifetime Cost Estimate
Adding up every phase gives you a clearer picture. For someone who completes one retrieval cycle, stores eggs for eight years, and goes through one round of thawing and transfer:
- Retrieval cycle plus medications: $7,000 to $17,000
- Eight years of storage: $4,000 to $8,000
- Thaw, fertilization, and transfer: $10,000 to $19,000
That’s a total range of roughly $21,000 to $44,000. The number shifts significantly depending on your city, how many cycles you need, how long you store, and whether you opt for genetic testing. Someone in a high-cost market like New York or San Francisco will generally land toward the upper end.
What Insurance Actually Covers
Insurance coverage for egg freezing and storage remains limited. Eleven states have passed laws requiring certain employers to cover IVF, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. But these mandates focus on IVF for infertility treatment, not elective egg freezing, and they apply only to fully insured employer plans.
Even where fertility coverage exists, cryopreservation is rarely included. One analysis of insurance plans found that only 2% fully covered egg cryopreservation costs. Some plans, like the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, cover one year of egg storage but only for people facing infertility caused by medical treatment such as chemotherapy. Elective freezing, the kind most people searching this topic are considering, is almost never covered.
A growing number of large tech and finance companies offer egg freezing as an employee benefit. These programs vary widely. Some cover the full retrieval cycle and several years of storage, while others cap coverage at a fixed dollar amount that won’t cover the entire process. If your employer offers a fertility benefit, read the fine print carefully to understand what’s included and what falls to you.
Transferring Eggs Between Facilities
If you move to a new city or want to switch to a facility with lower storage fees, you’ll need to ship your eggs in a specialized cryogenic tank. Shipping frozen reproductive material costs $1,000 to $3,000, depending on distance. Local transfers cost less than cross-country or international shipments. You may also face administrative fees at both the sending and receiving facilities for processing the transfer, which can add a few hundred dollars on each end.
Some people choose to move their eggs from a clinic to a dedicated long-term storage facility that charges lower annual fees. If the savings per year are substantial enough, the one-time shipping cost can pay for itself within a couple of years.