Amsterdam University’s medical centre can carry out limited scientific research into freezing eggs, junior health minister Jet Bussemaker told MPs on Tuesday evening.

But the practice of freezing eggs for young, childless women without a suitable partner is still not generally accepted and guidelines need to be drawn up, Bussemaker said.
At the beginning of October, the AMC said it is to press ahead with plans to offer egg-freezing services to single women and allow them to become a mother up to the age of 45 – the cut-off age for ivf techniques.
Research
The minister said the hospital first has to apply for formal permission to carry out the research and she expected it would proceed with its plans with extreme caution.
MPs are unhappy with the plans and had asked the minister to look into the legal and medical implications.
Women will have to pay for the eggs to be harvested, which involves a period of taking hormones. The service is already offered to women who risk becoming sterile because of cancer treatment.
Dutch women have their first baby on average just before they turn 30, making them among the oldest first-time mothers in the world.