How many ticks left in biological clock?

New test can help women gauge future fertility

IN THE GAME OF LIFE, does your biological clock say it's overtime?

For women wondering how long they can risk delaying motherhood, a test to predict fertility has just gone on the market in Britain, and the developers are exploring whether to offer it in the United States.

The test, called Plan Ahead, assesses the number of eggs in a woman's ovaries by measuring three hormones in the blood, and then predicts the woman's ovarian reserves over the next two years. The number of eggs serves as a "clock" that indicates how far along the path toward menopause she has traveled.

The $300 kit is sold by Lifestyle Choices, a company launched last October specifically to market female fertility and menopause products. It has been available for sale on the Internet since last month.

Users of the kit have a health professional draw a blood sample, which is then shipped to a laboratory to be analyzed. They receive a letter explaining the results within about four weeks.

Bill Ledger, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Sheffield in Britain, developed the test with the aim that it will one day be utilized by women around the world.

"My hope is that the Plan Ahead test will help many women avoid the anguish caused by the early or unexpected arrival of declining fertility and menopause," he said.

Ledger said that fertility starts to decline significantly after a woman hits 35, and that many women who've put off having children find it more difficult to get pregnant naturally as they get older.

Stuart Gall, managing director of Lifestyle Choices, said there's high demand for a test such as Plan Ahead in the United States.

"The regulatory bodies are different in the States, and so we're now trying to figure out our options for selling there and to check out what's needed from us," he said.

Gall pointed out that some of the materials used to test two of the women's ovarian hormones and the pituitary hormone actually originate in the United States.

"We believe we will be able to sell this product around the world," he said.

Gall said that there are two well-defined markets for the test.

"There are the 28- to 35-year-olds who are working on their careers now and wondering if they can wait a while to start having children," he said. "Then there are moms who've had a child and are wondering if they can take a break for a few years, or should have another child quickly."

In general, women in both the United States and Britain are putting off having children longer so that they can work on their careers. As a result, the average age at which a woman has her first child has increased in the United States from 21.4 in 1970 to 25.1 in 2002, according to a Census Bureau report.

A spokeswoman for the Family Planning Association in London agreed that the test would predict the number of eggs a woman will have for the next two years, but warned that there are many other factors involved in fertility such as the quality of the eggs.

"This test is just one part of the jigsaw when it comes to fertility issues," said spokeswoman Melissa Dear.

"The quality of your partner's sperm is vital too, as well as lifestyle issues such as drug or alcohol intake," she said.

Susan Seenan, a spokeswoman for Infertility Network UK in London, agreed that the test measures only one aspect of fertility.

"It does not, for example, tell you that you may have problems with blocked fallopian tubes or that when you start trying there may be a male factor problem," she said.

"The test can point to a potential problem with egg reserves and perhaps lead women to seek advice earlier than if they have not taken the test," she said. "But we would urge caution in not using this as a sole indicator of future fertility."