SINGAPORE — A woman's eggs age a lot faster than the rest of her, cutting her chances of giving birth to a baby as she gets older.

But researchers from Singapore have made a breakthrough in reversing the age of women's eggs, paving the way for greater success in assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

While still restricted to the petri dish for now, the research findings offer renewed hope for older women looking to take motherhood off the back burner after taking time to focus on other life priorities, including their careers.

The discovery centres on how the follicular environment plays a crucial role in the development and quality of a woman's oocytes, or immature egg cells.

Putting a young egg cell in an aged follicle aged it, while the reverse actually rejuvenated older egg cells, scientists from the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore and the NUS Bia-Echo Asia Centre for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (ACRLE) found.

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