More women prepared to put motherhood on ice for career

Eight out of 10 British students questioned for a survey said they would pay to have their eggs harvested and frozen at a fertility clinic so they could focus on reaching the top at work.

The study by the Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine shows women in their twenties are increasingly prepared to take such measures.
It is the first time the attitudes of young women towards egg freezing have been analysed.

The Leeds research was published at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Rome.

It was based on 195 medical and sports studies students with the average age of 21. More than 85 per cent of them said they were prepared to delay starting a family by resorting to egg freezing.

Experts say the findings show women need more education about their biological clocks so they can make informed choices about putting career ahead of motherhood.

The study comes as it was revealed that restrictions on women in their forties having free IVF could be lifted by the Government's health rationing body.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is understood to be drawing up new guidelines allowing older women to have fertility treatment to avoid being sued under ageism laws.

This would be yet another development enabling women to defy nature with the help of the latest advances in fertility treatment.

Egg freezing was largely restricted to women undergoing chemotherapy for cancer until a few years ago. This was because the chance of an egg surviving the slow freezing and thawing process was as low as two per cent.

Now new "flash-freezing" techniques are available which mean frozen eggs are as good as fresh ones.