The scientists used platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which triggers the growth of tissue and blood vessels and is thought to quicken the fix of damaged bones and muscles by stimulated tissue regeneration.
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Dr Sfakianoudis and his team found PRP also seems to rejuvenate older ovaries. “But it also opens up ethical questions over what the upper age limit of mothers should be'”.
Unlike men, who continuously produce sperm, women are born with all of their eggs, and release, on average, one a month between the start of puberty and the start of menopause.
A new blood treatment developed by researchers in Greece reportedly has the power to reverse menopause, enabling post-menopausal women to release eggs once again.
“I had a patient whose menopause had established five years ago, at the age of 40”, Sfakianoudis told the new scientist.
‘Six months after the team injected PRP into her ovaries, she experienced her first period since menopause’.
Scientists were successful in fertilising her two eggs using her husband’s sperm.
It’s estimated that around two-thirds of women experience the most common symptoms of hot flushes and night sweats.
For women who want to climb the career ladder or indeed find a partner to conceive with, they are faced with either freezing their eggs or risk not having a child, with IVF costing thousands of pounds privatly.
Around the age of 50, when menopause normally occurs, women’s ovaries stop releasing eggs.
Next, the resulting platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is injected into the ovaries.
PRP is still heavily debated, but it’s thought to regenerate tissue by triggering the growth of muscle and bone tissue, and is being trialled as a way to help treat injuries.
“We also need to consider the welfare of women and children before offering this technology to post-menopausal women”.
This is compared to 14.5 for those aged under 20.
Every woman goes through the menopause.
In the United Kingdom, the average age of menopause is 51, and comes when a woman’s natural supply of oestrogen dwindles and her ovaries run out of eggs.
And while most women reach menopause in their 40s or 50s, some get it even earlier.
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New Scientist has reported the team has not yet published its findings and has called for larger studies before announcing how effective the treatment is.
