London - Rising numbers of single women are turning to IVF to try for a baby.
Three times as many women without a partner registered at IVF clinics in 2013 as did in 2006, official figures show.
Fertility experts say they are increasingly being approached by professional women who have delayed starting a family in order to focus on their career. But when they finally decide the time has come to have a baby, and with their biological clock ticking, they do not have time to start a relationship.
About 952 single women in Britain registered for IVF treatment in 2013, data from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority shows.
The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, reveal that the numbers have risen every year since the data was first compiled in 2006, when 292 single women registered.
Between 2012 and 2013 alone, clinics saw a 22 percent increase in single women signing up. Full statistics are not yet available for 2014, but figures from the first six months of the year suggest the number of single women seeking IVF will have topped 1 000 for the first time.
Some 206 babies were born to single women via IVF in 2013, up from 155 in 2012 and 158 in 2011. The numbers remain slightly lower than for lesbian couples, who had 268 babies in 2011 via IVF. Around 14 000 babies are born each year to heterosexual couples via IVF. More than 45 000 women each year undergo IVF, in which eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory, before being placed in the woman’s womb.
But the treatment’s rate of success rapidly diminishes with age. A recent study showed that at 44 it is almost 20 times harder to get pregnant through IVF than at 39.
Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director of the Midland Fertility, one of the first clinics in Britain to accept single women, said: “There is a narrow window between achieving educational and professional goals, finding Mr Right, persuading him to start a family, and then the chance of achieving spontaneous pregnancy diminishing.
“If a relationship breaks down, she has to find Mr Right Mark Two – and the chance is that time by then has run out.’
‘I WAS TOLD THE CLOCK WAS TICKING’
Louise Peacock suffered from cancer aged 20, reducing her chances of naturally conceiving, and after a long-term relationship broke down she worried she would never have children.
When doctors warned her that her “clock was ticking quicker than other women”, she took matters into her own hands and got pregnant using a Canadian sperm donor and IVF.
Her parents Rosemary and Brian took her to all her appointments and still support her now. Then in October 2013 the former social services worker gave birth to twin boys Albie and Freddie with a close friend by her side.
Today she is bringing them up alone – and has no intention of getting married or having more children.
Peacock, now 35, from Swansea, said: “I’m really independent so I don’t think anyone was surprised at all really.
“I had a good job so I was stable financially and I had my own nice home to bring a child up in so I suppose I didn’t have many worries about those things.
“It’s hard work, I won’t deny that – they are really busy boys – but I love it.”
Daily Mail