Menopause reversal restores periods and produces fertile eggs

[avaistheone1]

Source: The New Scientist

MENOPAUSE need not be the end of fertility. A team claims to have found a way to rejuvenate post-menopausal ovaries, enabling them to release fertile eggs, New Scientist can reveal.

The team says its technique has restarted periods in menopausal women, including one who had not menstruated in five years. If the results hold up to wider scrutiny, the technique may boost declining fertility in older women, allow women with early menopause to get pregnant, and help stave off the detrimental health effects of menopause.

“It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material,” says Konstantinos Sfakianoudis, a gynaecologist at the Greek fertility clinic Genesis Athens.

“It is potentially quite exciting,” says Roger Sturmey at Hull York Medical School in the UK. “But it also opens up ethical questions over what the upper age limit of mothers should be.”



Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23130833-100-menopause-reversal-restores-periods-and-produces-fertile-eggs/

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This procedure seems relatively simple in comparison to other fertility methods - given that women who have already passed through the menopause may be able to have children following a blood treatment usually used to heal wounds jmo

[Lebam in LA]

1. Not so sure menopausal women really want to start raising children at that age

I could be very wrong, but definitely not for me

[avaistheone1]

2. Understood. Yet some women do.

Also keep in mind that menopause can start quite early in some women. Per webmd:

It usually starts in a woman's 40s, but can start in her 30s or even earlier. Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. In the last 1 to 2 years of perimenopause, this drop in estrogen speeds up. At this stage, many women have menopause symptoms.

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=how+early+can+menopause+start

[Lebam in LA]

4. Point taken

I certainly think that for some women this will be a blessing.

[Habibi]

5. Agreed.

Not for me, but I hope this expands possibilities for women who want children.

[LeftyMom]

8. Depending on heredity it might happen to me soon (I'm 35.)

My maternal grandmother swore she was totally done with menopause by age 40. My paternal grandmother had three kids after age 40.

Honestly, I'm leaning toward option A if I get a vote. Periods are bullshit and what kind of moron wants to be chasing kids around in their 40s and 50s? NOT ME, that's for damned sure.

[yeoman6987]

32. I am all for advancing Heath and disease cures

But I don't know if playing with body chemistry is a good idea.

[Helen Borg]

3. Brilliant...

http://www.ds-health.com/risk.htm

[chowder66]

6. Hurry!!!

I've been knocking on M's door for about 13 years. I started in my 30's and the hell my body is going through has been rough.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. Like the world needs more of us?

Adopt if you want kids so badly.

If there were a couple billion fewer of us, we wouldn't be having the environmental destruction and social chaos to the extent it's come to.

I have no support to give anyone who helps increase the human population.

[PasadenaTrudy]

13. +1! nt

[ffr]

15. "It is potentially quite exciting"

Netting something to the affect of 280,000 humans added to Earth per day and we're working on making naturally infertile women fertile again? I could see this as a major accomplishment if we were losing 280,000 people per day net, but we're increasing our numbers unabated.

It's easy to draw similarities between humans and a virus that is out of control, consuming all the resources of the planet and nothing is preventing it. I believe humans have less than 14 years left as we exist in our happy utopia before the world we live in is more undesirable because of us than it is desirable. Unpolluted fresh water will be the new currency.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. 280,000 per day

I need to learn to let go of it...nothing I can do to change that.

[StevieM]

22. The world also doesn't need anymore coerced adoptions.

We have more than enough of those.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

34. You mean like grandparents being forced into parenting kids

that their children failed to prevent?
There's a lot of that, sadly.

[Judi Lynn]

29. Thank you. Well articulated, by all means. n/t

[uppityperson]

9. Choice. Eom

[The Second Stone]

10. Now women can go through menopause multiple times!

That's gonna be popular.

[Freddie]

11. Hmmm

A GYN friend told me that a woman's eggs have an expiration date like a carton of milk. No amount of healthy living, exercise etc will make the eggs viable once they've "expired". This, not menopause, is why fertility rates drop; you can continue ovulating for years after your eggs are no good.

[avaistheone1]

16. The eggs may still be good. Per the article, it may be that the blood treatment produces ovulation

hormones that can now release eggs, when prior to this development sufficient ovulation hormones were not present.

Their research revealed that several eggs have been produced and a couple have already been fertilized by this process.

[Freddie]

19. True

Some women's eggs may still be "good"but they've gone into early menopause for unknown reasons.

[pnwmom]

12. That's fine for women in premature menopause. But for women who are 50 and over . . . .

no.

And not for men, either. It's not fair to a child to have such a high risk of losing a parent before they're twenty.

[Marie Marie]

20. Yes, I just read that Mick Jagger, in his 70's, is about to become a father again.

Seems awfully selfish. We get it Mick, you're still oh so virile. But at what young age will that child lose his father?

[pnwmom]

21. The risk of birth defects also goes up with men's age. Not just women's. It's a selfish thing to do.

[ToxMarz]

14. I feel sorry for the Quiverfull women, I imagine that was something they could look forward to.

[Marthe48]

17. Can they do a total rewind?

Had a hysterectomy almost 20 years ago. If I could get my ovaries back and get rid of the hot flashes that have plagued me every day for almost 20 years, I'd be interested. But according to the article, you must have ovaries for the potential treatment to affect your health. So, back in front of the fan with an ice pack. <sigh>

[RobinA]

18. I Wonder How Safe

this is down the road for the woman. Forcing ovulation tends to carry a cancer risk.

[dflprincess]

23. I wouldn't mind having my pre-menopausal metablolism restored

but the periods? Can't say I've missed them.

[bekkilyn]

24. Ugh, what a nightmare

To *finally* after waiting *decades* for the freedom of menopause to arrive, and then have it turned all around again? Ugh ugh ugh! When I finally hit menopause (and I'm hopefully getting perimenopausal now), I'll be CELEBRATING, so they had better keep this terrible procedure away from ME.

Also, I find it more important to find ways of dealing with our severe population problems *other* than increasing it by forcing women to endure childbearing until we die of old age. While I sympathize with those who weren't able to have children during normal childbearing years, those years are more than enough for most. Plus, what kid wants to be taking care of their 90 year old mother as a teenager?

Just don't see a lot of benefit here.

[haele]

25. Ouch. Imagine being the average 58 year old woman going through a pregnancy.

Unless you took really, really, really good care of your body, it would be significantly more painful and potentially damaging to your pelvic area than it would even if you were almost 40 ...

Even though I am intrigued with the idea of having genetic offspring now that I am married and finally financially secure, I couldn't imagine getting pregnant at the age I am now. Especially since I never was pregnant when I was younger.

Haele

[tblue37]

26. Unless the woman has gone through early menopause so that she was prevented from

being able to have children at a normal age when she really wanted them, I don't think this is a good idea at all.

[lunatica]

27. No thanks... I'm much happier now.

but I only speak for myself.

[tavernier]

28. Oh boy!

The chance to once again have periods and tampons and a mattress pad stuck between my legs!

TMI?

Yeah, I feel the same way.

Couldn't they better do research to cure leukemia?

No rotten tomatoes, plz. Just IMO.

[Warpy]

30. While this might be great for recovering anorexics

who have thrown themselves into early menopause from extreme weight loss, don't expect many women over 50 lining up for a return of floods, cramps, bloating, ruined clothing, embarrassment, and the specter of unplanned pregnancy.

Most of us are delighted when that thing finally dries up and goes out of business.

This is for younger women.

[Vinca]

31. Amen to that . . . I couldn't agree more.

[Retrograde]

35. You said it, sister!

I was "lucky" to have a late menopause - had my last period when I was nearly 60. I'm glad it's finally over and done with.

OTOH, I didn't experience any of the negative side effects a lot of women get (so far).

[meow2u3]

37. My last period was a few years ago

I was 51 when I had my last period. I wouldn't want to go through it again.

I had no negative side effects of menopause. Perimenopause was quite a different story.

[meow2u3]

36. Who the hell wants to have kids in their late 50s, only for them to be orphaned?

And how are the children of such women going to able to cope when they're orphaned after Mom dies at 75? The moms would likely not live to see their children reach adulthood.