Why that biological clock is no longer a blind date
Susan Daly on a new test that pinpoints exactly when a woman reaches the menopause
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Tuesday June 29 2010
The tick tock of a woman's biological clock was once the only indication she had that the time for making babies was upon her. Now scientists are claiming that a simple blood test can pinpoint exactly the moment when the clock will stop for good.
Iranian scientists have found that by measuring the level of a certain hormone produced by a woman's ovaries, they can predict with accuracy at which age she will enter menopause. The average age for menopause is around 51, but women in general stop producing eggs at any time between 40 and 60.
The discovery sent ripples through an international fertility conference in Rome yesterday. "The possibility of an accurate predictor for menopause is very exciting," said Dagan Wells of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at Oxford University in England. "People have been looking for something like this for years."
There are huge implications for a woman knowing when her baby-making window will be open -- and when it will shut. A woman in possession of that knowledge in early adulthood could well plan her career and personal life around it.
Fiona McPhillips, author of Trying to Conceive: The Irish Couple's Guide, says the test is very good news. "Anyone who has been through infertility issues tends to wish they had started trying younger," she says. "Everyone seems to know someone who gave birth in their 40s -- they think, JLo did it, Madonna did it, I'll be fine -- without realising it may all have been over by their mid-30s."
McPhillips had her first baby at the age of 34 without a problem, but struggled to conceive when she began trying for a second child at 35. "I had a low ovarian reserve. I did do the blood test that was available at that time but it didn't pick it up. This new test could have told me a lot earlier and it would have saved a lot of heartache." She did have her second baby, at 38.
Helen Browne has heard many stories of heartbreak in the years since she founded the National Infertility Support and Information Group (www.nisig.ie). "What our support groups hear time and time again is 'if only I'd known' and 'I wish I'd done something sooner'," she says. "Some people in their 30s or early 40s might feel they have another few years to have a baby when they may not. They might not marry until late and then decide they want to spend a year or two together, getting to know each other without children, after which time their opportunity to conceive may have passed.
"If someone knows exactly when their ovarian reserve is dropping, they can plan for it."
Browne says that the spotlight thrown on celebrity later-life mothers is deluding women to the biological reality of fertility: that it waits for no woman, no career, nor Mr Right.
"There is a lot of information out there now in the media and across the medical board that fertility drops hugely after the age of 35," she says. "However, people read about these actresses having their first children in their 40s and think that will happen for them."
Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry had all turned 41 when they had their first babies.
Holly Hunter had her first child at the age of 47.
It doesn't help that these high-profile mums rarely go on the record about the expensive and invasive fertility treatments many of them have no doubt had to conceive their babies. Marcia Cross, who plays Bree in Desperate Housewives, was unusually forthcoming about the sense of urgency to have babies when she married at 43.
"We did in vitro a week after we got married," she said. "We were supposed to go to Greece and Paris and have this fancy honeymoon and I said, 'Let's stay put and see if we can't give this baby a chance'." She had twins at the age of 44.
"'I wish I'd met my husband earlier," she said, "It's sad to have it (motherhood) so late.
"It's math, you know."
Jennifer Lopez, who had twins at 38, has also expressed her regret that by the time she had children she realised it probably would be too late to happen again.
She told her husband Marc Anthony: "I said, 'I don't know if I'll ever be pregnant again, this might be the only time in my life that this happens, we've got to make it good'."
On the other hand, there is a huge amount of pressure that comes with a woman knowing the expiration date on her eggs.
"I know people in their 30s who wouldn't want to have this test because they don't want that pressure on them," says Fiona McPhillips.
A few years ago, an article in the British Medical Journal caused uproar when gynaecologist Susan Bewley suggested such denial of the impact of age on fertility can be disastrous. She had suggested that women should get a wriggle on and start trying to conceive before their 30s if they wanted a family.
"People are aware that ageing is a bad thing but the bio-panic women had on their 30th birthday has moved up to the 40th birthday," said Dr Bewley.
"Surveys of older mothers show that half say that they delayed because they had not met a suitable partner. Maybe instead of waiting for Mr Right they ought to wait for Mr Good-Enough, if they want children."
Helen Browne of NISIG says the reality is that women should never be afraid of knowledge. "I know women who would have been 28 or 30 going into the menopause," she says.
"If you knew your fertility would be over by 30, wouldn't your plans change?"
- Susan Daly
Irish Independent
