The NHS should be the first port of call for women struggling with anxiety and fertility, and of course fertility-related anxiety. But that’s not always the case. Every time I went to my GP to ask about the aftereffects of the ovarian cysts and the reasons for my irregular periods, I wasn’t taken seriously. Because I had no pressing issues, I was just told to stay on the pill until I was ready to start a family.

Alice, 35, has also had negative experiences with healthcare professionals. Her fertility anxieties began when she was trying to conceive her first child. She experienced an ectopic pregnancy and eventually found out the cause was hydrosalpinx – when a fallopian tube becomes blocked and fills with fluid – and was surprised to learn that doctors had missed it.

Their manner didn’t help: “They weren’t very nice; they didn’t speak to me kindly. I was told to just join the IVF waiting list and they’d get back to me within a year.” She felt relief when she moved to Abu Dhabi for work. Once there, she used private healthcare to help conceive her three children.

Jennifer, 32, had similar experiences with the NHS after experiencing an early pregnancy loss due to a combination of not understanding what was going on with her body and poor handling from the NHS. “Now, she says, “the idea of not meeting someone, the fearmongering brought about by geriatric pregnancies, knowing menopause isn’t far off and general worry about life itself, I would say my anxiety has tripled.”

The NHS arguably falls short in addressing fertility anxiety due to strained resources, including a serious shortage of doctors specialising in reproductive health. In light of the societal consensus that the quality and frequency of women’s eggs depletes over time, timing is crucial, and for so many women, time is running out.

Wherever a worry exists, a marketable solution will step in. Femtech, a rapidly growing industry worth £648 million, offers many tools for women trying to conceive, including menstrual tracking apps and wearables that analyse fertility markers. Telehealth platforms also allow for virtual consultations with fertility specialists and in the UK, egg freezing cycles rose to over 4,000 procedures in 2021 versus 400 a decade earlier.

However accessible some femtech can be, egg freezing comes with a hefty price tag, starting at around £4,000 - and that’s without storing and implantation costs. Dr Malik also points out that though the procedure might calm a woman’s anxiety in the short term, it’s not a silver bullet: “This psychological relief [from egg freezing] is noteworthy; however, 80% of frozen eggs are never used, and freezing them after the age of 35 is unlikely to lead to a successful pregnancy.

“It is so important that women are aware of these facts before possibly embarking on a very expensive journey.”

“I can’t get that time back”: how fertility anxiety is troubling young women