Women face hidden fertility ceiling despite donor eggs

Image caption, This Morning's TV soap expert Sharon Marshall was 46 when she had her daughter, Betsey, through IVF treatment in 2018 By Michelle Roberts Digital health editor Published 11 minutes ago Older women face a lower chance of fertility treatment working, even when using young donor eggs - with a marked drop-off from around the age of 49, new research suggests. Experts studying 1,774 women say the findings challenge the idea that donor eggs can fully "reset" the reproductive clock, but should not put older couples off trying. Women aged 49 and over had double the risk of miscarriage than those aged 35 to 40, and were also less likely to get pregnant. Researchers believe age-related changes in the womb lining may be the cause and could be treatable in the future. It might be possible to find ways to predict, prevent or improve womb age, they say. Lead researcher Dr Beatrice Crestani, from an assisted reproduction medical institute in Italy , external , says that reproductive ageing has been seen as an ovarian issue, and that if you replace older eggs with younger donor ones, you "reset" the reproductive clock. "Our findings suggest the picture is more complex," adds Dr Crestani. In the study, women in their mid to late 30s had a 54% chance of getting pregnant with donor eggs and IVF treatment; that fell to around 43% for those aged 49 or older. Live birth rates declined from 46% to 32%, while miscarriage rates increased from 24% to 38%. The researchers also noticed age-related changes to the womb lining or endometrium - where a fertilised egg or embryo implants to grow - in the older women. While the thickness was similar, the condition declined with age. Dr Crestani added: "These findings should not discourage women from pursuing donor-egg treatment, because success rates remain meaningful even at advanced ages. "However, patients should be counselled that donor eggs cannot completely eliminate the effects of reproductive ageing, particularly beyond 49 years." In the study, the live birth rate was around 80% for women aged 35-40 and 62.5% among those aged 49 or older who transferred all available embryos. This Morning's TV soap expert Sharon Marshall went through six years of IVF attempts in her 40s. At 46, she gave birth to her daughter Betsey. "We look at celebrities who have given birth in their late 40s, early 50s and beyond. We celebrate them. We don't know what hell they've been through. "Looking back I think I spent most of my 40s really in a state of illness and depression and it was a complete loss of autonomy over my body. I was going through this process over and over again." She says she had made a pact with herself to quit at 47 if the IVF didn't work by then. "We had two losses before we finally got there on the seventh round," she recalls. Marshall says she worried throughout the pregnancy. "I never once felt calm... until the point she was born." Speaking about the new study findings, she said: "Let's be honest with women