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A Spanish fertility centre says the British women it treats are more likely to be significantly older than their partners compared with other nationalities.
The Barcelona-based Institute Marques helps more than 1,000 couples from the UK a year and is opening an office in Harley Street to meet the demand.
Dr Raul Olivares, the IVF centre's international director, said that in at least 12 per cent of British couples the woman was at least six years older than her partner. This compares with one per cent for couples visiting the clinic from Italy or Spain.
Dr Olivares said: "This phenomenon is most commonly seen in UK patients Starting a new relationship with a much younger man makes these women feel rejuvenated, and at a time of such physical and emotional plenitude it can be difficult to accept that one's 'reproductive train' may already have left.
"Often they cannot understand that at 45 you can have a fantastic body but it can be too late to have a pregnancy."
This weekend saw the UK's first IVF roadshow, the Fertility Show, at London's Olympia. It included advice sessions from fertility experts as well as exhibitors from clinics around the world.
Dr Olivares, who had a stand at the show, said the recession had not discouraged older women who want to become mothers.
"When they arrive with us a significant amount of time has passed and these women have reached an age where the quality of their eggs has declined and for the further treatment they need egg donation, although this was not the original cause of their infertility," he said.
"But neither this nor economic problems can halt their long-standing desire for a child."
Single mothers account for one in 10 of the British women who visit the Spanish clinic.
Meanwhile, IVF experts were today launching a national network of centres offering tests to women over 30 to check their future fertility.
The UK Body Clock Network will include centres in London providing special blood tests and scans to determine how many eggs a woman has left. Those with a low ovarian reserve can start trying for a baby sooner than originally planned or freeze their eggs until the time is right.
The clinics are being launched by a team of fertility experts including Professor Bill Ledger from Sheffield University who is a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Professor Ledger said: "Women do not realise the importance of age when it comes to fertility. They think, 'It won't happen to me, I'm 37, I go to the gym twice a week, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I'm fit - everything about me is young'. Well it is, except your ovaries."
Strain that treatment puts on couples is incredible'
After three failed IVF attempts Ann Summers chief Jacqueline Gold gave birth to her first child in May, a daughter named Scarlett Rose.
Ms Gold, 48, and her partner, City trader Dan Cunningham, 31, had fertility treatment in San Francisco after three unsuccessful attempts in Kent and the Lister Hospital in London, starting in 2002.
She said: “The strain that IVF puts on your relationship is just incredible.” The couple split briefly after their failed IVF attempts but reconciled and decided to try once more, this time in the US.
After returning to the UK she had a blood test and the results were faxed to America. “Dan and I sat by my computer in absolute agony and it was just incredible when that email came through and it said Congratulations you are pregnant'.”
She said women now “live longer, we are healthier, we have careers and we are just not ready to have babies at the age of 20. I think it's such a shame that our bodies haven't evolved with us so that we can be fertile longer”
Reader views (1)
The trouble with waiting for 'Mr Right' is that he doesn't exist: what bloke can live up to such a stereotype? Ironically all the women who wait for Mr Right end up trying to have children with Mr Anyone With Sperm Will Do. I think people in days of yore had it right when they married early to have children and a home life and then seperately had discrete lovers later on . . . it's not like an extra decade or two of working and partying makes you better prepared to be a parent - if anything it makes it an even greater shock!
- Roz, France
