Beating the biological clock...

The one hurdle fertility specialists have never been able to overcome is the ageing of human eggs, but now new research from the States suggests that it may be possible to produce eggs in the laboratory using women's stem cells, and these eggs have the capacity to be fertilised.

So far the research has been done on mice, but it could hold the possibility to transform female fertility as it shows that women's ovaries contain stem cells that hold the potential to make new eggs. It is, however, vital to remember that we are still a very long way from being able to offer women the opportunity to overcome their biological clocks - but there is a possibility that there may be new ways to put women on a more equal footing with men when it comes to reproduction at some point in the future.

The new research has been published in the journal Nature.