Women over 40 seem to be just as capable of carrying a baby to term
as younger women, provided the egg is donated. A report in last week’s Journal
of the American Medical Association (vol 268, p 1275) lends strong evidence
to the theory that the age of the eggs is a much more important factor in
human fertility than the age of the uterus.
Mark Sauer and his colleagues from the University of Southern California
compared 65 women between the ages of 40 and 65 with 35 women under the
age of 40 who had experienced premature ovarian failure. Both groups received
donated eggs, and in both groups about a third of the attempts at transferring
embryos fertilised in a test tube led to pregnancy. A third group of women
over 40 who had in vitro fertilisation with their own eggs had significantly
less success, with only 11 per cent of attempts leading to pregnancy.
A total of 27 infants were born to the 31 women over the age of 40 who
received donated eggs. Women in their forties have traditionally been excluded
from infertility therapies. But Sauer calls older women ‘ideal candidates’
for egg donation in his report.
Martin Quigley of the Northeast Regional Centre for Infertility in Beachwood,
Ohio, warns that sudden demands from older women may outstrip the supply
of donated eggs.