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Women over 40 are flocking to fertility clinics in a final attempt to start a family before their biological clock stops ticking, latest figures show.
The fortysomethings are the fastest-growing group of patients seeking IVF, up from less than 1000 in 1991 to more than 6000 in 2006, a greater than six-fold increase in 15 years.
Demand for IVF has soared for all age groups in the past decade, with almost 40,000 cycles of treatment provided in 2006. Forty-plus women have led the surge, rising from 10 per cent of all cycles in 2000 to over 15 per cent in 2006.
Experts said the trend was a consequence of the social pressures on women to delay starting a family while establishing their careers and growing awareness of the potential of fertility treatment.
But they warned that many older women face having their hopes dashed as success rates for IVF decline sharply with advancing years.
The figures also show rising demand from single and lesbian women. Cycles of treatment provided to single women doubled from 600 in 1999 to more than 1200 in 2006. Treatment cycles for lesbian couples trebled from 300 to almost 1000.
Medical advances and improvements in technique have seen success rates for treatment increase dramatically. The overall live birth rate has risen by half since 1991, from 14 per cent to 21 per cent per cycle of treatment.
The success rates are even higher for younger women under 35, with over one in four becoming pregnant at the first attempt. But they fall sharply after women pass the age of 35, declining to 12 per cent at age 40, less than half the rate for the under-35s.
After the age of 43, more than 95 per cent of patients return home childless.
Angela McNab, chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which published the figures yesterday on the occasion of the authority's annual conference in London, said the growth in demand from women over 40 was worrying.
"Scandinavian countries are seeing the trend to delay motherhood even more markedly. It is a matter of concern. We may need to remind women about the biological clock and the difficulty of achieving pregnancy over 40."
The average cost of a cycle of treatment ranges from £4000 ($10,500) to £8000. A woman having three or four cycles faces a bill of at least £12,000.
- INDEPENDENT
