A GENERATION of 30-something women are delaying motherhood because they falsely believe IVF treatment will turn back their biological clocks, experts have warned.
Professor Siladitya Bhattacharya, head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, said women are delaying starting families because they falsely believe IVF is a 'solution' to the problem of infertility caused by
ageing. New research carried out by his department shows most women seeking fertility treatment wrongly believed the technique would compensate for the fact their fertility had diminished naturally over the years.
And he warned that the reality for many women was that they were simply leaving motherhood too late.
The average age that women start their families has risen as increasing numbers delay childbirth to concentrate on careers and securing financial stability. Bhattacharya revealed the average age of women requesting fertility treatment in his clinic has grown from 28 in the 1990s to 32 now.
Women's fertility sharply declines after 35 because the quality of their eggs deteriorates, but Bhattacharya found that most patients thought IVF could cure this.
He said: "Many women are unaware that the success rate of IVF is 30% at age 30, but 0.8% at 44. Women need to know the reality behind the promise and lure of assisted reproduction. It can do a lot, but it is unable to turn back the biological clock.
"Social circumstances have changed, so women feel obliged to make sure they secure their financial future. But leaving childbearing to the mid-30s or later is associated with a lower chance of success and a higher chance of complications.
"Some women may perceive IVF as a solution for reduced natural fertility and are unaware of the significant impact of age on IVF outcomes. The way to address this is by making women aware of what IVF can achieve, but also what it cannot."
Bhattacharya and his colleagues interviewed over 700 women from the Grampian area, half of whom were attending clinics for fertility treatment and half of whom had recently had babies. A total of 41% of women attending fertility clinics for treatment were over the age of 30.
Almost 85% of the infertile women believed that fertility treatment could overcome the effect of age. Over a third believed IVF success rates did not decline until women turned 40 and 10% believed IVF success rates did not decline until women reached the age of 45. The study is published in the journal Fertility And Sterility.
In recent years, scientific advances have led to a number of high-profile cases of older women having babies. Last year, a 67-year-old woman gave birth to twins in Barcelona, Spain, after having IVF. Britain's oldest mother is Patricia Rashbrook, 62, a child psychiatrist from Lewes, East Sussex who gave birth to a boy in 2006 after fertility treatment.
But despite the advances, the majority of women over 40 undergoing fertility treatment are unlikely to be successful.
Yesterday Susan Seenan, spokeswoman for the support groups Infertility Network UK and More to Life, which helps couples come to terms with childlessness, echoed Bhattacharya's comments. She said: "There's a general perception that you can leave it until later because there's always IVF, but people don't realise that the older you are, the more difficult it is to get pregnant with IVF.
"There is a general perception that because IVF is here and a scientific advance it will work. You do get 40-year-olds becoming pregnant first time, but it does not work for everyone.
"We need more sex education at school age, alongside contraception education to explain that it can be difficult to get pregnant if you are older. I don't think there's a right age, but the younger you are the more successful you will be."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said the maximum age limit for women seeking NHS-funded fertility treatment in Scotland is 39. However, women over 39 can pay for the treatment themselves at a cost of around £3,000 per cycle.
Success ratesThe average success rate for each IVF treatment cycle by age in the UK is:
• 29.6% for women under 35
• 23.6% for women aged 35-37
• 18.2% for women aged 38-39
• 10.0% for women aged 40-42
• 3.2% for women aged 43-44
• 0.8% for women aged over 44
Figures supplied by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
