A 59-year-old woman is to become the oldest woman in the UK to receive IVF treatment.

The Daily Mail reports that retired teacher Susan Tollefsen gave birth to her first child at the age of 57, after travelling to Russia to undergo fertility treatment.

In the UK, government guidelines say that women over the age of 40 generally should not be recommended for fertility treatment. Most clinics will not consider women over the age of 50 for the treatment because of health issues and the fact that the treatment is less likely to be successful. Some experts also have concerns about the effects on the child of having elderly parents – clinics that do not take into account the welfare of the child might have their licences to practice rescinded. Clinics do not, however, have to inform the regulator if they do treat older women.

Mrs Tollefsen – who will be 60 in October this year – said, however, that she saw no reason why she should not have a child, as she is healthy.

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said that once a woman was past ‘the point of natural conception’, fertility treatment should stop. Ms Dorries is calling for new laws that set an upper age limit for IVF treatment.

‘We need to legislate for this because inevitably society will have to pick up the cost later,’ said Ms Dorries.

‘Perhaps the cut-off point could be extended by a couple of years into the early 50s, but moving as far as 60 – which is a huge leap – is slightly preposterous.’

Mrs Tollefsen will be treated at the private London Women’s Clinic in Harley Street, which has one of the highest success rates for IVF in the country. Doctors there agreed unanimously to treat her – and are said to be considering treating another unnamed 57-year-old woman.

Mrs Tollefsen’s first child was born in Moscow using a donor egg and sperm from Mrs Tollefsen’s partner, Nick Mayer, who is 11 years her junior.

The London Women’s Clinic agreed to treat Mrs Tollefsen last week, after she initially met with the clinic’s medical director – leading consultant Peter Bowen-Simpkins – who is a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Mr Bowen-Simpkins said:

‘No one at the clinic has seriously opposed seeing these patients as individuals. Everyone agreed we should change the policy and now treat women over the age of 50 on a case-by-case basis.’

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