Despite low odds, women aged 40 and over make up a quarter of the clients at Victoria’s IVF clinics

THE number of older women trying to conceive via IVF continues to rise, despite fewer than one in 10 women over 40 ending up with a baby.

“BABY lust” is driving older women to conceive via IVF, despite fewer than one in 10 women over 40 ending up with a baby.

Despite the low odds, women aged 40 and over make up a quarter of the clients at the state’s assisted reproduction clinics.

Women this age have a 9 per cent chance of a live birth from a fresh embryo transfer, compared to 31 per cent for women under 35.

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Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority CEO Louise Johnson said IVF was “no cure for age-related infertility”.

She said people should be wary of suggesting clinics were taking advantage of older women.

“It’s about baby lust from both women and men,” Ms Johnson said.

Dr Joe Sgroi with IVF baby Rudy Opray Stewart and embryologists Bradley Wilson and Michael Chan. Picture: Tony Gough

“Even if they had just 1 per cent chance of success, some women would want to do it so they knew they’d tried everything. At the same time, it is important people are provided with realistic information about their chances of success.”

The VARTA annual report, tabled in state parliament yesterday, shows more women than ever tried to conceive using their frozen eggs, either for medical or social reasons.

In the past financial year, 163 IVF cycles involved a patient’s thawed eggs — up from just 77 two years ago.

Women aged 40 and over make up a quarter of the clients at Victoria’s IVF clinics.

“A common reason for women initially freezing their eggs is because they have not found a partner,” Ms Johnson said.

East Melbourne obstetrician, gynaecologist and fertility specialist Joseph Sgroi, said genetic screening of embryos had improved the chances of older women becoming pregnant.

“Women are contemplating pregnancy these days when they feel financially, emotionally, physically and socially ready,” he said. “They feel they want to tick these boxes and so they’re delaying pregnancy.”

The VARTA report showed 12,959 women received assisted reproductive treatment in the 2017-18 financial year, resulting in 4453 clinical pregnancies. It also showed women used surrogates, with 13 live births in Victoria in 2016-17 out of 40 surrogate pregnancies.

Women aged 40 and over make up a quarter of the clients at Victoria’s IVF clinics.

A total of 560 new sperm donors were recruited in Victoria this year, up from 460 the previous year.

Ms Johnson said good-quality sperm donors were still in demand by clinics.

The report showed about 4000 donor-conceived children could seek information from donors, with 156 applications from children, parents and donors.

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