Planned oocyte cryopreservation (POC): a longitudinal study of patient experience.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine POC patient experience at multiple stages throughout the course of a treatment cycle. METHODS: Email invitations were sent to 359 POC patients from November 2024 to August 2025 for this longitudinal, survey-based cohort study. Surveys were distributed at three different points throughout a POC treatment cycle: pre-cycle, mid-cycle and post-cycle. The survey questions related to the experiences of the participant in relation to eight core aspects of clinical treatment. Participants were asked to rate their experience (difficulty) and feelings on a scale of 1 to 10. Responses of first and subsequent cycle POC participants were compared for each aspect of treatment. RESULTS: A total of 101 participants were recruited (28%). Mean age was 34.8 years; all had completed secondary school, with 91.1% completing a bachelor's degree or above. The experience of first and subsequent cycle patients was similar for each component of treatment, with the exception of self-administered injections (SA Injections). In the pre-cycle survey, first-cycle respondents gave SA Injections a significantly higher expected difficulty score (mean = 6.08) compared to subsequent cycle patients (mean = 4.79, p = 0.006). After completing their cycle, participants reported recovery from the egg collection to be the most difficult aspect of treatment (mean difficulty = 5.41), with 43.93% of respondents giving it their highest ranked difficulty score. CONCLUSIONS: POC patients found most aspects of treatment less difficult than they had initially anticipated, with recovery from the egg collection being the most difficult aspect of treatment.