Scientists REVERSE the menopause: Women who’d not had a period in five years are now menstuating again after their ovaries were rejuvenated

July 20, 2016

Anna Hodgekiss for MailOnline

Published:
11:14 EST, 20 July 2016

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Updated:
11:41 EST, 20 July 2016

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Scientists claim to to have effectively reversed the menopause by ‘rejuvenating’ women’s ovaries.

The Greek team say the technique enabled women to release eggs and re-start their periods.

One woman began menstruating after a five-year hiatus, New Scientist reports.

If the treatment continues to show promise, it could potentially allow older women and those who have suffered premature menopause to conceive.

The Greek team say the technique enabled women to release eggs and re-start their periods

‘It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material,’ Konstantinos Sfakianoudis, a gynaecologist at the Greek fertility clinic Genesis Athens, told the magazine.

To turn back the fertility clock for women who have experienced early menopause, Sfakianoudis and his colleagues have turned to a blood treatment that is used to help wounds heal faster.

‘It is potentially quite exciting,” says Roger Sturmey at Hull York Medical School in the UK. “But it also opens up ethical questions over what the upper age limit of mothers should be.’

Most women are born with an average of two million eggs, but every month, they lose up to 1,500 eggs.

By the time she is 30, the average woman has 70,000 eggs remaining, which drops to 30,000 when she is 35 and 25,000 when she is 37.5.