Sheffield fertility clinic used same faulty product which destroyed women’s frozen eggs in London hospital

A Sheffield fertility clinic has been announced as the second site affected by a faulty product which destroyed over 100 women’s frozen eggs at a clinic in London. 

The Jessop Fertility clinic joins Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London in having been affected by the product.

The London trust confirmed dozens of their patients may have lost the chance to become biological parents due to an error with freezing solution, but no patients of the Sheffield clinic lost out on their chance.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will only be investigating at St Thomas’ Assisted Conception Unit.

Rachel Cutting, director of compliance at HFEA, said: "We are satisfied that Jessop’s undertook a thorough investigation when they first became aware of the issue and contacted and supported any patient affected."

HFEA assured that any affected patients will have been notified.

Dr Jennifer Hill, Medical Director, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We began a thorough patient review as soon as the product recall notice was issued.

"We have robust tracing processes in our laboratories and so we were able to identify that there were 29 people who had eggs or embryos frozen in the period when we used the particular product batch.

"We can confirm that 28 of those did not have the faulty fluid used to freeze their eggs or embryos. The remaining person was contacted at the time and did not require further actions to be taken.”

The London clinic said it may have inadvertently used bottles of a faulty freezing solution, which could lead to frozen eggs and embryos not surviving the thawing process.

It is believed that many of the 136 patients affected have had cancer treatment, which may have left them infertile, in the time since having their eggs or embryos frozen.

A safety notice about the faulty freezing solution was issued to all clinics in February 2023 by HFEA, but they had reportedly already been used in September and October 2022 by the London clinic.