Older eggs pass on fertility risk

Women who delay starting a family may be putting their daughters at risk of fertility problems, say US researchers.

A study of women at a fertility clinic found that those who failed to become pregnant after treatment had older mothers than those who were successful.

The researchers from Atlanta, warned that postponing childbirth had implications for future generations.

The results were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in New Orleans.

Researchers asked 74 women under the age of 35 years who were undergoing fertility treatment what age their mothers were when they gave birth to them and when they went through the menopause.

Women who became pregnant after IVF treatment had younger mothers, whose average age was 25, compared with those for whom IVF was not successful, whose mothers were aged, on average, 28.

The researchers also found that the average time span between the age at which the mothers gave birth to their daughters and the menopause was almost 25 years in those whose daughters had successful fertility treatment.

But this fell to 20 years on average in the mothers of women who failed to conceive, meaning the ‘ovary age’ was five years older.

Fathers of the women who failed to conceive were also older when they were born at 32 years compared with 28 years in those who got pregnant.

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