Home fertility tests soar

Adriana Iliescu became the world's oldest mother when she gave birth to a baby daughter at the age of 66 last year.

The children's author had reportedly undergone fertility treatment in Romania for nine years in her attempt to become a mother.

Adriana used a donor egg to create her daughter, Eliza Maria, who was born five weeks premature - a twin had died in her womb.

Elizabeth Buttle, a farmer from Carmarthenshire, became Britain's oldest mother when she gave birth to a son at the age of 60.

It later emerged that Mrs Buttle had lied about her age to receive fertility treatment from a clinic in London. But she has remained unrepentant about her decision to have a child at that age.

"I do wish I had more children while I was younger," she told sceptics a year after her son Joe's birth in 1997 - some 40 years after her first daughter Belinda was born.

"But farming is a very hard life, you're always busy and it's just one of those things you keep putting off until next year.

"A lot of mothers in their 20s, 30s and 40s die and leave children. So, just because you're older doesn't mean when you come to a certain age they are going to shoot you out of the way."

Anecdotal evidence from fertility clinics throughout England and Wales would suggest that, while Adriana Iliescu and Elizabeth Buttle may be extreme examples, large numbers of women in their 40s are seeking help to conceive - some clinics have reported that half of their clients are women aged 40 to 49.

It would appear that IVF, in spite of the age limit imposed by the NHS for its "one free go" offer, is fast becoming something of a safety net for those older women who put off parenthood earlier in life to pursue a career or financial stability.

Official figures compiled by the Office of National Statistics reveal that the proportion of women choosing to have children later in life is continuing to rise, with fathers getting older too.

The ONS said that in 2004, for the first time, the fertility rate for women aged 30 to 34 in England and Wales overtook that for the 25-to-29 age group.

The fertility rate for women aged 30 to 34 was 99.4 live births per 1,000 women - an increase of 4.9% on 2003 and the highest fertility rate in any age group since 1998.

The growing phenomenon of older parenthood - which has accompanied women becoming more visible in the workplace, and in the most senior roles - has raised a raft of concerns that women, in particular, may be being "lulled" into infertility.

A group of London-based obstetricians, writing in the British Medical Journal last year said, "The availability of in vitro fertilisation may lull women into infertility while they wait for a suitable partner and concentrated on their careers and achieving security and a comfortable living standard.

"But this expensive, invasive treatment has high failure rates - more than 70% of women undergoing a cycle of IVF do not achieve a live birth, more than 90% when older than 40."

There is also concern that male infertility is declining as a result of environmental pollution - some studies have tracked a decline in sperm numbers since the start of last century.

Nazar Amso, a senior lecturer in reproductive medicine at Cardiff University and a consultant gynaecologist, said, "There is some evidence that toxic chemicals can affect sperm quality and numbers and some of these may be increasing as pollutants in the environment.

"If this is the case then it is reasonable to assume that one has to be concerned about the future years when pollution may affect male fertility even more.

"In terms of female reproductive potential, we already know that age is an important factor and that the success of IVF treatment declines with increasing age.

"There is also evidence that pelvic inflammatory disease and repeated bouts of it can cause tube blockages and damage.

"Taking all these factors into consideration, I feel concerned that the human race's potential for reproduction is declining over time."

Peter Bowen-Simpkins, director of the Cromwell IVF and Fertility Centre, in Swansea, added, "The average age of first conception is rapidly increasing, a fact which has become very, very obvious in fertility clinics where we are seeing more and more women in their 30s coming along. And that's quite worrying.

"Lifestyle pressures are determining age of first conception - there are economic pressures as people want a job with good prospects; they want a mortgage and many want to travel more and have a few decent holidays before pregnancy. But we still have the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe, which is very sad."

It is exactly this growing trend to delay parenthood until later in life, coupled with declining male and female fertility and long waiting lists for IVF treatment - at the moment couples are advised to wait at least a year before they even take the first steps towards seeking medical help for fertility problems - which has spawned a new market for DIY fertility tests.

But despite their high price tags - the Fertell his and hers tests developed by the University of Birmingham costs £80 and the Plan Ahead kit, which assesses the number of eggs in a woman's ovaries compared with the levels expected for others of the same age, costs £179 - experts are convinced that they are not a waste of money.

Mr Amso said, "The justification for these tests is that a couple can find out about their own fertility - it's always helpful to know whether a woman is ovulating.

"The guidelines for IVF treatment and infertility say if a couple has been trying for a year or more to get pregnant without success they should contact their GP.

"A GP will not do a sperm test on a couple who have been trying for less than a year, but if the man has tested his own sperm at home, or a woman has taken a test showing she is not ovulating, then it would be reasonable to expedite the referral to a specialist clinic."