Post-Menopausal Babies May Become Reality in 2017

There may be a time that the biological clock will be deemed moot -- for hoping mothers in menopause, anyway. We may be able to see the first batch of post-menopausal babies as early as 2017 -- with egg from mothers on menopause.

According to New Scientist ,a fertility clinic in Athens early this year claims it had reversed the menopause in a group of their patients. Apparently they had injected the woman's ovaries with platelet-rich plasma from their own blood.

This approach is widely-used for bone and joint injuries. The idea is to kickstart resident stem cells into doing action, however just how it works is still unclear for them.

According to New Scientist, the team says they have managed to "fertilize" eggs from their patients. They are planning to implant these embryos soon and, if they develop normally, may mean the first batch of post-menopausal babies may be born next year.

The treatment is offered by two clinics, both in New York and Egypt.Of course there may be other paths towards menopausal motherhood. 

According to New Scientist, other groups are attempting to rejuvenate eggs by swapping their mitochondria with those from younger women. It can be remembered that a mitochondria provides the power of cells and there is hope that, with a youthful energy supply, the egg cells that remain in menopausal women can divide better and have fewer genetic errors. 

Another approach is to be able to extract stem cells from the ovaries of women and mature them into new eggs in the lab. Then if this work, it could give women of potentially any age to develop the ability to generate young eggs.

Of course there's always the debate whether or not such ovarian stem cells really do exist. However, this hasn't stopped teams from researching around the world to find, mature and fertilize them. 

Of course given that this is more or less done in the quiet, we may only be able to hear news from this if a post-menopausal baby has actually been born - but this could happen anytime soon.