Don’t put your face too close to the gas – it could kill you in seconds,’ warns embryologist Emma Whitney, as a cloud of liquid nitrogen erupts from the steel tank in front of me.

The tank is one of several large freezers in this clinic housing hundreds of frozen eggs and embryos. One day, it is hoped, they will become babies. I’m the first journalist to have a peek at this store at the Evewell fertility clinic in West London‘s Hammersmith, which charges around £5,000 for egg freezing.

But I’m not just here for professional reasons. I am also one of the many women who are considering transferring their eggs into one of these giant freezers, in the quest to become a mother.

I’m 32 and recently shelved plans to start a family after splitting with my partner of nine years. But I know I want children one day.

Friends in similar positions are freezing their eggs to ‘buy more time’. It’s a ‘back-up plan’, and they say I should do it too.

Egg freezing, which involves a short extraction procedure, storing them in liquid nitrogen and using IVF to fertilise them at a later date, has exploded in popularity over the past five years.

The number of procedures, which cost between £4,000 and £10,000, jumped by just over 60 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) – the UK’s independent regulator of fertility treatment.

One clinic told The Mail on Sunday it had seen almost a ten per cent rise in the number of egg freezing requests in the past year alone. Investment banks and tech companies in the City of London have even begun offering the treatment as an employment perk in order to hang on to female executives.

Since 2019, financial services firm Blackrock has offered its female employees £15,000 for fertility preservation. ‘Women are seeing people talk about it on social media and want to explore the option,’ says Evewell’s Ms Whitney. ‘Some have come out of long-term relationships, others have been more career focused and get to their mid-30s and realise they’re not where they thought they’d be. It’s about taking some control over what happens in their lives, and making sure women have options.’

Other fertility clinics use similar phrases to market the treatment: it ‘gives women the freedom to choose when to have a baby’ and to ‘take control of their fertility’. But I’m sceptical.

First, few babies in the UK have been born from frozen eggs. The most recent figure I could find was from 2016, which was a meagre 39.

HFEA suggests about 18 per cent of frozen eggs end up as babies. And, according to a recent HFEA warning, many clinics aren’t transparent about these poor statistics and are luring patients in with aggressive marketing tactics.

A good friend of mine pulled out of treatment last week after a clinic initially quoted her £3,000 before bumping up the price to £8,000 without explanation.

A string of recent articles written by women have described the treatment as laborious, prohibitively expensive and not worth the pain. One young woman who spoke to me, but didn’t want to be identified, said egg freezing was ‘the worst thing I’ve ever done’ – and she didn’t even pay for it.

‘I was offered to freeze my eggs on the NHS, to preserve my fertility before I had chemotherapy for breast cancer,’ said the 32-year-old marketing executive from Essex.

‘But the clinic never should have let me do it because I reacted so badly to the hormones used to stimulate egg growth. In the end, it was worse than chemo.’

The woman says she suffered extreme bloating and agonising pain for a month during the treatment, which left her barely able to move. ‘I was going for scans and my eggs weren’t developing – it clearly wasn’t working,’ she said. ‘But they kept on pumping me with hormones. In the end I got three eggs, but it wasn’t worth the absolute hell.’

What’s more, experts have warned that the chances of pregnancy from frozen eggs are so low that it’s like ‘a lottery ticket’.

Professor Gab Kovacs, a specialist in reproductive gynaecology from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, says: ‘It is like a really spurious insurance policy that might pay out – or might not.’

The process begins with a consultation, followed by blood tests to check levels of fertility hormones.

Next, during the start of their monthly cycle, the women inject themselves with hormones, which they repeat twice a day for two weeks, to stimulate the follicles in the ovaries to grow and develop eggs. They then go for scans every two days to check on how the follicles are growing. If things go as planned, at the end of the two weeks a 30-minute procedure is carried out to extract the eggs. This can be performed under local anaesthetic or sedation, and patients are ready to go home within a couple of hours.

Some women will need to repeat this two or three times to collect enough eggs. The number depends on the woman’s age at the time of freezing, but is usually at least ten.

The main risk is a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, where the ovaries swell badly after the hormone injections, causing pain and bloating. Studies show it occurs mildly in about 20 per cent of women, and severely – risking blood clots – in about one per cent.

‘The pain varies from patient to patient,’ says Emma Kafton, clinic manager at Evewell. ‘Some are in pain for a few hours or a few days afterwards, others feel nothing. This is why close monitoring is crucial.’

After the procedure there are a couple of follow-up appointments and then the women are sent on their way, paying £300-£400 per year to store the eggs, which, by law, must be destroyed after 55 years.

When a woman comes back for her eggs she’ll have to fork out at least £5,000 for IVF. While the age she decides to get pregnant doesn’t affect the success rate – the key question is: does it work?

The first thing to say is that there is not enough data available in the UK to make a firm conclusion.

Medical egg freezing has been available since the late 1980s for patients about to undergo fertility-destroying cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy. However, the majority of women in these cases had their eggs frozen when they were children or very young adults, when fertility is in its prime. And significantly, most did not actually use their frozen eggs. Having said that, the data that exists, outside of the UK, isn’t bleak at all.

In June, experts at Belgium’s Centre For Reproductive Medicine found that, of 110 women who used eggs frozen between 2009 and 2019, 72 later became pregnant and 45 gave birth. This would make the birth rate roughly 41 per cent – considerably higher than the 18 per cent suggested in the UK by HFEA. And a US study published last year by fertility doctors from one American clinic found that 543 women who froze eggs aged under 38 had a 51 per cent chance of giving birth.

‘Usually, almost all the eggs survive the thawing process and then around three-quarters will fertilise and make an embryo,’ says Professor Kovacs.

‘Of those, 70-80 per cent will produce a pregnancy and then around half will go to full term.’

Rachel Cutting, the director of compliance and information at HFEA, adds: ‘The egg-freezing technology used to be hit and miss, with few eggs surviving. But now we have very effective techniques and the success rates are good.’

In comparison, even after a year of trying to get pregnant naturally, only roughly 40 per cent of women will succeed – and the risk of genetic abnormalities is far higher.

But there are two details to bear in mind. First, freezing requires a lot of eggs to be collected. And second, whether an egg will fertilise depends on the woman’s age when she undergoes the procedure to collect and freeze them.

‘Some women need several cycles to collect enough eggs to make it worth their while,’ says Evewell’s Ms Kafton. ‘Most clinics charge per cycle.

‘And if a woman can only afford one but it is clear from her scans and blood tests that too few eggs will be collected, there’s little point in her going through with it.’

Ms Whitney adds: ‘If you freeze eggs under 35, most of them will be good enough quality to survive the thawing process and make a viable pregnancy. When you get to 37, this is true for about half, and if you freeze eggs at 40, it’s a quarter.’

Freezing my eggs now would be ideal, experts tell me, but how much should I be paying?

A quick Google reveals a shocking variation in prices – with some clinics charging up to £10,000.

One 35-year-old woman I spoke to told me she paid just under £4,000 to freeze 13 eggs last year. Her friend, meanwhile, paid £7,500 for almost identical treatment. ‘She went to one of the fancy clinics where they do things like give you a menu to order lunch from after your procedure,’ says 35-year-old Sarah Cowan, a digital marketing executive from London.

‘My clinic was basic, but it was perfectly fine and comfortable.

‘I’m really lucky with my experience, the procedure was over in 40 minutes and I was pretty much fine afterwards, albeit quite tired for a few days.’

Some clinics include the cost of the hormones in their pricing and others don’t, while others may charge extra for the scans of the womb and ovaries. But experts say as long as you know what to ask for, it is relatively easy to get an accurate idea of the total costs upfront – see the box above.

‘I’d tell patients to budget around £5,000 for the whole thing,’ says Ms Kafton.

That’s an amount I could afford, and seems to be a small price to pay for boosting my chances of having a family when I’m ready to – as well as taking the pressure off, even if for only a few years.

Embryologist Ms Whitney tells me ‘For a lot of women, the benefit is psychological. It stops them sticking with an unhappy relationship because they think that person is their only hope of having children.’

I put this to Prof Kovacs.

‘The problem is that women these days are too focused on finding Mr Right, which is unrealistic,’ he says. ‘Maybe women should settle for Mr Not Too Bad instead, so they can have children naturally.’

I said I couldn’t imagine this advice going down well with my generation of women. And these days, it’s not always a partner women are waiting for.

‘More and more women are opting to have children alone,’ says Ms Whitney. ‘They know they don’t want them right now because of career choices or whatever else, but they want to do it when they’re ready without relying on a partner’s timeline.

‘In fact, we recently had two patients who were best friends and giving birth alone, using sperm donations, at roughly the same time.

‘Their babies were born during the Covid pandemic and they moved in together for support, and sort of shared the parenting. They said it was more of a harmonious partnership than they could have imagined having with any man.’

I think I’m sold.

A record number of women in the US are having children in their 40s and 50s — despite the health risks to themselves and their babies.

Women in their early to mid-20s have a 30 percent chance of getting pregnant naturally every month, but by middle age, that drops to just a couple of percent. The rise of IVF has changed the rules, however.

Karen Wilson, 53, from Florida, conceived twins in 2022 via IVF more than two decades after having her son. She told DailyMail.com: ‘The best thing about being an older mom is the appreciation of the privilege, the whole giving birth, the whole pregnancy, not taking it for granted. Having two beautiful children this late in life – I think it’s a really great blessing.’

Nancy Zepada, also 53 and from Florida , became a first-time mom in February. She was in her 40s when she realized, ‘I really, really knew that I needed to have a baby,’ but did not meet her husband until she was 48.

In 2021, there were 1,041 births to women aged 50 and over in America, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Prevention & Control. The figure is 10 times higher than in 1997 when only 144 births to women in this age group were reported. When surrogates are included, the numbers are likely thousands more.

The rising cost of living is leaving some mothers unable to afford to have children at a younger age. Others are delaying motherhood to focus on their careers or have not met a suitable partner.

Older moms have been normalized by Hollywood, with celebrities like supermodel Naomi Campbell, who first became a parent at age 50 and welcomed her second child at 53. Actress Halle Berry gave birth to a son aged 47, while singer Gwen Stefani had her youngest son at 44.

But being an older mom is not without its risks. Studies show the chance of miscarriage for women aged between 35 and 40 is between 20 and 30 percent, and rates rise significantly for people 40 and over.

The risk of babies born with conditions like Down syndrome also increases as women age. The risk of a baby with Down syndrome rises with the mother’s age, from one in 1,250 for a 25-year-old mother to one in 1,000 at age 31, one in 400 at age 35, and one in 100 at age 40.

Dr Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com: ‘The chromosomes don’t divide normally, and this is the cause of problems with microtubules in the dividing cells.’

He said: ‘When mitosis occurs, the cell splits in half, and it splits the chromosomes in half, they’re pulled by teeny little threads called microtubules. If you’re a certain age, they don’t work correctly; you develop three and one chromosomes instead of two and two. That’s part of genetic abnormality.’

Older women are also more likely to have children with birth defects, he added, because ‘the human body seems to have been designed to reproduce at a younger age.’

Women over 40 are also at increased risk for pre-eclampsia – high blood pressure and protein in the urine during pregnancy, which can be life-threatening – and gestational diabetes – atypically high blood sugar during pregnancy – which can result in low or abnormally high birth weights and premature and difficult deliveries.

Ms Wilson, who also has a 21-year-old son, ‘always wanted to have more children,’ before she gave birth to twins Lily Rose and Luke Ray in April.

She said: ‘You realize what a blessing and a true gift it is, being able to have babies this late in life. All my friends are all grandmothers.’ 

Ms Wilson did note, however, a downside of being an older mom: ‘the knowledge that I’m an older mom and I’m not going to have as much time with them on this earth that I would have if I was a younger mom.

‘My mom just passed away, and I’m 53, so I see the detriment that that caused on me. Obviously, I feel sad for my kids because we’re not going to live forever. But I think the main thing is if you’re healthy and in the frame of mind to take care of babies.’

In her younger years, Ms Wilson said she ‘just didn’t find the right opportunity. I didn’t meet the right guy.’

For the twins, Ms Wilson was able to use the sperm of her 66-year-old partner, who already had four children aged between 39 and 21 years old from a previous relationship. He is also a grandfather to two, and with the birth of his twins, he now has children younger than his grandchildren.

Ms Wilson joked: ‘Don’t ask me how that’s all going to work!’

The mother-of-one was approaching her late 40s when she decided she ‘really wanted [more] kids.’

‘Time was passing me by, and I thought to myself, if I don’t do it now, I’m never going to be able to do it,’ she said.

She tried to foster but was told she was ‘too old’.

IVF is one of several fertility treatments available to conceive a baby. During the process, an egg is removed from the ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a lab. This embryo is then implanted into the woman’s uterus to grow and develop.  

Twins and triplets are more common when conceiving via IVF because more than one embryo is transferred during the procedure.

In April, Ms Wilson gave birth via C-section near Tampa, Florida. 

Her twins are now almost five months old, healthy, and she is able to breastfeed them both.

She told DailyMail.com: ‘I never in my wildest dreams thought that I’d be a mom to two wonderful little babies. I’m so lucky.’

She added: ‘I have a lot more patience than I did when I was younger, and things like the baby crying and stuff doesn’t bother me as much as it did when I had my [first] son.’

Despite her joy of having twins as an older mom, Ms Wilson has experienced some negativity from people around her. 

‘Friends would say, “You’re crazy, why would you do that?”

‘The way that I look at it is, your time is your time. You could be a 25-year-old mom and get killed in a car crash. A lot of people say, “What are you going to do when you’re not there?” But you know, life’s all in God’s hands.’

Ms Wilson thinks the number of old moms is growing because ‘the opportunities for women are so much greater than when I was younger.’

Meanwhile, Mrs Zepada became pregnant using a friend’s donor egg and gave birth to her first child Jason in February.

Ms Zepada was married at 18 but divorced a few years later and without any children. She didn’t meet her current husband until she was 48 years old.

She told DailyMail.com: ‘We’re both very thrilled, very happy. He is our joy.’

Most of her pregnancy was uneventful, but Mrs Zepada started to have high blood pressure in her third trimester and needed medication.

‘Overall, I did very well. I was very surprised. I managed to get around very easily. Like most pregnant women, I had a bit of shortness of breath, but I was surprised I handled it pretty well.’

She said: ‘There are some more famous fertility clinics that won’t do this for older women. The doctor that I went to has even helped older women. He told me that one of his clients was 59.

‘I feel good about it. I know that there are actually some women who frown on women my age having babies, even to the point of being ugly about it, but actually, [my son is] very fortunate. 

‘My husband is retired, so either me or my husband is with him all the time, instead of having to pay a caregiver, and we’re financially more well off than younger people, which is an advantage. He’s gonna grow up in a very nice lifestyle with him being very loved’.

Mrs Zepada had always wanted kids. 

‘Since I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait to grow up so that I could have my own child,’ she said.

‘About 10 years ago is when I really, really knew that I needed to have a baby’.

Mrs Zepada said she feels more equipped to be a mother at an older age.

‘We’re more mature; we can teach him more things because we have more life experience,’ she said.

‘When he’s older, I’m going to probably be less active because of my age, but I’m pretty healthy, and I plan to live a long time and be there for his grandchildren and help take care of them, too.’

When Ceri Griffiths was offered IVF add-ons, the 37-year-old accepted, hoping it would massively boost her odds of having a baby.

But, instead of the family she so desperately craved, the restaurant owner was left with nothing but heartache.

Now Ceri, who suffered three miscarriages through her exhausting 10-year fertility struggles, fears she has ‘wasted’ her first round of collected eggs. 

Although Ceri’s four add-ons — none of which are proven to work — were paid for entirely by the NHS, other women are not as fortunate. For example, had Ceri, from Wales, gone private, undergoing the same procedures could have cost her upwards of £10,000.

Some couples longing for a kid have told of their regret at spending their life savings on fertility treatment and the handful of extras offered.

Discussing the devastation of repeatedly going through the trauma of a failed pregnancy, Ceri told MailOnline: ‘Every time you do it, it gets harder and harder. It chips away at you.

‘It’s been really hard. It’s been really hard for my husband (Oliver) as well. If anything, it’s made us stronger together. And he’s so supportive. I think it’s affected his mental health just as much as mine.’

One add-on given to Ceri during her nine rounds of IVF was an ‘endometrial scratch’. 

Like the name suggests, doctors physically scratch the lining of the womb, which apparently releases chemicals that make it more receptive to an embryo.

Yet this is marked as ‘amber’ by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulator, meaning there is little evidence to show it boosts the chance of pregnancy.

Five add-ons fall under this category. Ceri was given four of them, some of which were carried out repeatedly. 

Yet she claims that not one doctor explained how the add-ons had ‘conflicting’ evidence around the odds of it actually helping. 

Discussing her experience of scratching, Ceri said: ‘The hospital staff were lovely, but the procedure was horrible.

‘They just suggested I should have it done. They said the theory is that it encourages blood flow to the area to encourage a healthy womb. That is all they said.

‘Only after doing my own research in the last month or two did I know there was no evidence.’

After losing her fallopian tubes due to a blockage at just 23, Ceri was aware that it would be impossible to get pregnant naturally.  

It meant IVF was her only option because eggs are fertilised out of the body and implanted into the womb — replacing the role of the fallopian tubes. 

In 2013, Ceri, who at the time lived in Lincolnshire, had her first round of IVF through Care Fertility Nottingham, paid for by local health chiefs. 

After just one round, complications started to hamper the couple’s dreams of having a baby.

Ceri, 29 at the time, was diagnosed with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). It can cause women’s ovaries to expand dangerously. In severe cases, victims can be left fighting to breathe with blood clots in their lungs.

Ceri’s first round ended in a chemical pregnancy, a miscarriage that happens within the first five weeks. An embryo forms but then stops developing — it can happen so early that many do not even notice it.

After a failed second attempt in Nottingham, the pair started to struggled mentally with the fear of never being able to have a family of their own. 

Ceri and Oliver moved to Wales in 2014 for a job at a caravan park and so was referred to a closer clinic — the Hewitt Fertility Centre at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

She had another seven rounds with three other add-ons: elective freeze-all cycles and time-lapse imaging, artificial egg activation and embryo glue. 

Between them, they claim to help select only healthy eggs, promote hormone production and reduce disruptions to development in a bid to increase the odds of pregnancy. 

Yet none of her attempts were successful. At the Liverpool centre, Ceri endured two miscarriages — one at six weeks and another at eight weeks.  

She says she was never told about the HFEA’s traffic light system and the practice of providing people with add-ons is taking advantage of vulnerable families wanting to have a child.

‘It’s all a money-making scam if you ask me’, she added,

‘It has been incredibly hard. I feel angry, and I feel let down.’

Now she is making a formal complaint against the NHS after she says it allowed her to ‘go through all her eggs without ever referring her to a reoccurring miscarriage clinic for further testing’.

She believes the add-ons gave her a false sense of security and by not seeing a specialist, her eggs were ‘wasted’.

As Ceri’s biological clock is ticking, she is desperately trying to find the funding for another chance with a specialist.

She says she needs to scramble to find at least £12,000 for a fresh cycle to collect more eggs. 

She wants to freeze any left over embryos developed with the eggs for future use with a miscarriage specialist. 

Thousands of Brits go through a similar emotional rollercoaster every year as one in seven couples face difficulties conceiving.

Around 53,000 Brits went through the draining process of IVF in 2019, according to the HFEA.

A trust spokesperson for Liverpool Women’s Hospital said: ‘We would like to apologise for the upset caused to the patient as a result of their experience. 

‘We have reached out to the patient to allow us to look into this further to better understand the issues and identify where we could have done better.’

Kourtney Kardashian is expecting her first child with husband Travis Barker, 46.

The 44-year-old reality TV star revealed the news to the Blink-182 as he performed on stage at his concert by holding up a sign that read: ‘Travis, I’m Pregnant.’

It’s a nod to the band’s iconic All The Small Things music video, in which a similar sign appears.

After catching a glimpse of his wife’s message, Travis jumped down off the stage, made his way towards her and the couple shared a passionate kiss. 

She later confirmed the news on her Instagram Story by sharing a video of the surprise reveal. 

Kourtney revealed last December that she’d officially stopped her IVF journey 10 months prior after she said it caused her to spiral into a deep depression among other symptoms.

She already shares three children — Mason, 13, Penelope, 10, and Reign, eight — with ex-boyfriend Scott Disick, 39.

Travis has two children — Landon, 29, and Alabama, 17 — with his ex-wife Shanna Moakler, 48.

Kourtney and Travis became romantically involved in late 2020 after nearly a decade of friendship.

They made their relationship Instagram official in February 2021 and were engaged by that October.

The couple wed at a courthouse in Santa Barbara in May 2022 before jetting off to Portofino, Italy a week later to hold a lavish wedding at the Dolce & Gabbana mansion in front of their friends and family.

Kourtney has been open with fans about her attempts to conceive a child with husband Travis Barker through in vitro fertilization.

In 2022, Kourtney first detailed her struggle with IVF on Hulu’s The Kardashians.

In the episode, Kourtney was at her Calabasas home as mom Kris Jenner came to visit, asking how the doctors went, as Kourtney responded: ‘Awful.’

Kourtney revealed in confession that their doctor took them ‘down this road of doing IVF, and it hasn’t been the most amazing experience.’

She also claimed that the ‘medication that they have been giving me, they put me into menopause, literally into menopause.’ 

Along with the Kourtney said that it also put her into a depression and caused weight gain.

‘I think because I’m so clean and careful about what I put into my body, it’s just like having the complete opposite reaction and working as a contraceptive instead of helping us,’ she told audiences at the time.

‘I have everything in the world to be happy about. I just feel a little bit off and not like myself. Super moody and hormonal, like I am a lunatic half the time.’

In December 2022, she confirmed to fans that she’d officially stopped treatment 10 months earlier and was only just ‘getting my energy back.’

She told The Wall Street Journal that she ‘took a break to just focus on our wedding and getting married’ — which took place in May 2022.

In the season premiere episode of season three of The Kardashians, the POOSH founder further discussed their choice to discontinue IVF and how she’d frozen her eggs in her 30s.

‘We would love a baby more than anything but I just really believe in what God has in store for us,’ she explained.

Kourtney had ‘seven frozen eggs from years ago before Travis’ that those around her had pushed her to get.

‘When I was 38 or 39 everyone was like pushing me to do that and most of mine didn’t survive the thaw because eggs are one cell and none of them made it to an embryo.’

Kourtney was always aware that ‘freezing of the eggs is not a guarantee’ that she would get pregnant.

She told her sister Khloe that her and Travis already ‘have a full, blessed life’ without a child, so they were not letting it get them down.

‘All the thing that came with IVF took a toll on me physically. My health is still impacted because it’s hormones. And also mentally it took a toll,’ she explained.

‘So, I think just being happy is most important and being a good parent to my kids. We are just embracing that whatever is meant to be will be.’

Kourtney previously said that motherhood is her ‘favorite role in life’ and that it ‘gives me purpose.’ 

An artificial intelligence that can scan sperm to work out which are healthiest has been developed by scientists.

Even in men who eat well and exercise regularly, barely one in ten sperm are healthy — and in some men the ratio falls below four percent.

At the Oma Clinic in California, however, scientists have developed a ‘sperm health test’ algorithm that scans swimmers for their shape and how they move to pick out the best ones for fertilizing an egg from the crowd.

They hope that it will boost success rates with invitro fertilization (IVF) and lower costs, meaning couples will need fewer rounds of the treatment.

Kiran Joshi, an entrepreneur who helped develop the AI, told DailyMail.com: ‘As it stands right now, couples have to go through three cycles of IVF on average.

‘We want to reduce that number as that will reduce the pain and reduce the financial burden and lead to more success.’

About 40 percent of infertility cases are down to the male partner, studies suggest, with sperm counts having been in freefall for decades — a pattern blamed on the rise of poor diets and sedentary lifestyles.

Mr Joshi explained to this website that the algorithm had been built by scanning sperm from the ejaculates of more than 1,000 men.

The samples were submitted by fertility clinics across the US and other countries, and were mostly from men in their 30s and 40s — although they ranged up to the age of 75 years.

To develop the algorithm, the scientists began by extracting a subset of sperm from each sample — which contained up to 20,000 swimmers.

Top embryologists then placed the samples under a microscope and analyzed the health of each.  

They were graded based on two factors: Their shape and how well they swim.

A healthy sperm has a smooth and oval shaped head, and will also be able to swim rapidly and in a straight line.

But Mr Joshi said that finding these swimmers is often like searching for a ‘needle in a haystack’.

Explaining what it is like analyzing a sample, Dr Michael Guarnaccia, an endocrinologist who was also involved in developing the AI, said: ‘We have some sperm who swim in non-straight patterns, and sometimes we see sperm swimming in circles or in an aberrant way.’

The sperm were graded based on these two aspects using standardized measures and an about ten second video of each was then recorded.

This was then fed into the AI to give it the ability to accurately estimate how healthy any one particular sperm is.

When the AI is in use, it draws a box around each sperm and then quickly allocates a color based on the perceived health of the sperm. 

Results are delivered within seconds — with red boxes indicating unhealthy sperm and green indicating those which are healthy.

The scientists are set to publish their research in an academic journal over the next couple of months, although they are unable to say in which one.

They have carried out tests monitoring the success rates of IVF rounds that have used and have not used the technology.

At this stage, the researchers cannot reveal the results, but said that there was a ‘significant’ difference between the two groups.

Dr Guarnaccia told DailyMail.com: ‘We did show an increase in the percentage of fertilization and the rate of advancing embryo development.

‘There was a percentage increase both in the fertilization rate and the number of embryos that made it through. That was statistically significant.’

The technology could mark a significant step forward for the IVF industry, by boosting fertilization rates and reducing the costs and time needed for couples to go through the process and conceive.

It may also help scientists by giving them a second opinion, with some experts contending that it is often a struggle to tell apart the healthy sperm.

About 36,000 children are born via IVF in the United States every year, estimates suggest, accounting for one percent of all births.

But this is a figure that continues to rise as more couples leave starting a family until later in life. Estimates suggest that by 2050 as many as half of all babies may be born in the US via IVF treatments.

A baby boy carried in a uterus implanted into his mother by a robot was born in a world first.

The youngster, who has not been named, weighed six pounds and 13 ounces when he was born via planned C-section in Sweden last month. Both the child and his 35-year-old mother are doing well.

The pregnancy was made possible when a family member agreed to donate their uterus to the mother, who then had a fertilized egg implanted into it via IVF. The case marks the first time robots have been used for the procedure.

It will give hope to the tens of thousands of American women who don’t have a uterus — which can be due to cancer or a medical condition — or have one unable to carry infants.

The case was revealed by surgeons at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, a leader in uterus transplants.

In the surgery, researchers began by removing the uterus in the donor by gradually cutting it away from blood vessels and pulling it out through the vagina.

Small incisions were made in the second patient’s side by the pelvis, and the uterus was implanted into them. It was connected to their blood vessels and vagina.

Surgeons inserted cameras and robotic arms with surgical instruments attached through the small entry holes in the lower belly to carry out the procedure — with the robotic arms being the first for this type of surgery.

The arms were steered via joysticks, with surgeons using consoles to see 3D images of the patient’s insides simultaneously. 

This method is less invasive than the standard uterus transplant, which involves opening up larger openings in patients.

It is also thought to reduce the risk of infections, hemorrhages and allow patients to return to their daily lives faster.

The transplant occurred in October 2021 at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Ten months later, an embryo was created via IVF before being inserted in the transplanted uterus, and a few weeks later, pregnancy was verified.

The mother-to-be felt well throughout her pregnancy, which has thus now concluded with a planned C-section in the 38th week at the end of May 2023.

Pernilla Dahm-Kähler, adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, was the principal surgeon in the complex operation on the recipient.

She said: ‘With robot-assisted keyhole surgery, we can carry out ultra-fine precision surgery.

‘The technique gives very good access to operate deep down into the pelvis. This is the surgery of the future, and we’re proud and glad to have been able to develop uterine transplantations to this minimally invasive technical level.’

Dr Niclas Kvarnström, the transplant surgeon who performed the complicated blood-vessel suturing in the recipient, added: ‘With the robot-assisted technique, procedures can be done that were previously considered impossible to perform with standard keyhole surgery.

‘It is a privilege to be part of the evolution in this field with the overall goal to minimize the trauma to the patient caused by the surgery.’

The work is headed by Mats Brännström, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and gynecologist and senior consultant doctor at the University Hospital.

He said: ‘This is the 14th baby born in the uterus transplantation project at Sahlgrenska Academy, and more births are awaited this summer.

‘The research project continuously evaluates numerous variables in donors, recipients, and children after the uterus transplantation, following up the operation for several years afterward.

‘All this is done to maximize the efficacy of the operation and minimize side effects in the patients.’

About one in 5,000 women in the US is born with a genetic condition that means they do not have a uterus.

Women can also have a uterus that is not structurally able to hold a developing fetus. It may also need to be removed due to conditions like uterine cancer, which affects about 3,300 women under 40 years old annually.

Uterus transplants have been available for women since 2014, although not using robotic arms.

A total of 33 have been carried out in the US to date, with the majority completed at Baylor University’s medical center in Texas.

Globally, an estimated 90 uterus transplantations worldwide have been performed, and some 50 babies have been born as a result.

Previous patients have included mother-of-five Aprill Lane, who donated her own uterus at the age of 39 years so that another woman could have children.

The research group has spread the methods and techniques further through direct knowledge transfer to several centers worldwide.

A record number of women in their 40s are having children, official data shows — as the birth rate continues to drop off in younger age groups.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed the birth rate for women aged 40 to 44 rose four percent in 2022 on the previous year to a record high.

There was also a 12 percent uptick among women who were aged 45 to 49 years, the first change in this rate since 2015, and to another record level.

Experts say that more people are putting off starting a family until later in life, instead choosing to focus on their career, travel and social life in their younger years. The rise of technologies such as invitro-fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing have also played a role.

The uptick among older women comes as America’s fertility rate hovers at just below 1.7 births per woman. It hit a record low in 2020 at 1.6 when the pandemic led many couples to put off having children.

Dr Joshua Goldstein, the director of the population center at the University of California, Berkeley, told NBC News that the lower fertility rates ‘probably means that more women are having children when they want to have children’. 

He continued: ‘They’ve had chances to get a better education, better chances to find the right partner, more chances to excel in their career.

‘It’s not the size of the next generation that matters. It’s the contribution that generation can make. The fact that women are able to have children at the ages they want and invest in those children is a positive thing.’

For women aged 40 to 44 years, the fertility rate was 12.5 births per 1,000 women, while for those in the older age group, it was 1.1 per 1,000.  

There was also an uptick in the birth rate among women who were in their late 30s, where it rose two per cent to 54.9 per 1,000.

But birth rates continued to decline among women aged 20 to 34 years — and hit a record low among those aged 20 to 24 years.

Among teenagers, the rate hit a record low of 13.9 births per 1,000 women in the age group — after falling eight percent from 2007 to 2021.

Official data showed that overall there were 3,000 fewer babies born last year compared to 2021.

The report from the CDC, released today, said 3.661million births were recorded in 2022, down just under one percent on the previous year.

This was a less steep drop from 2019 to 2020, when it declined four percent amid the pandemic. 

But it marked a switch from 2020 and 2021, when the birth rate rose by one percent — likely as couples who put off having children.

America’s fertility rate has been in decline for decades, which experts have blamed on the ‘Instagram’ generation prioritizing careers, traveling and their social lives over having babies. 

Others have also raised concerns over the rising cost of living and student debt, which they say leave many feeling financially unable to start a family until later in life.

Health officials pointed out the data was provisional, but with more than 99 percent of births counted it indicates that the birth rate is continuing to slip.

Dr Phil Levine, an economist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, explained to CNN that when women have children later they tend to have fewer children.

America’s birth rate has been declining for decades as more and more people prioritize their careers and say it is now too expensive to have children.

In the 1800s, when records began, American women were having about seven children each.

But this has tumbled consistently over the preceding years, hitting three per woman in the 1900s and then dropping below two in the 2010s — the rate needed to maintain the current population.

America’s birth rate fell a whopping four percent in 2020 to the lowest level on record amid the Covid pandemic as many couples put off having children.

It rebounded one percent in 2021 as pandemic restrictions eased to 3.664million, but the latest data suggests it is now trending back to a period of decline.

In the latest report, data shows that 38 out of 50 states plus Washington DC saw a decline in births in 2022 compared to the previous year.

The sharpest downturn was in New Mexico (eight percent), followed by the District of Columbia (seven percent), North Dakota (five percent) and New Hampshire (four percent).

At the other end of the scale was Texas (up four percent), followed by Florida (also up four percent) and Delaware (up three percent).

Experts have previously warned that the low birth rate could lead to economic devastation in America down the line, as the federal government would need to collect more taxes to fund programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Dr Melissa Kearney, an economics professor at the University of Maryland, previously told DailyMail.com: ‘There has been a greater emphasis on spending time building careers.

‘Adults are changing their attitudes towards having kids.

‘They are choosing to spend money and time in different ways… [that] are coming into conflict with parenting.’

She continued that younger people are also showing more interest in leisure activities and travel now than they did before, on top of career building.

‘[Wanting to travel] just comes into conflict with parenting,’ she said.

Many have pointed to the high costs of childcare, student debt held by Americans in their early 20s and other financial pressures for the drop off in birth rates.

Britain’s first three-parent baby has been born using a groundbreaking IVF procedure.

In the biggest leap forward since IVF itself, the technique, called mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), protects children from a group of mitochondrial disorders, including muscular dystrophy, which can cause poor growth, muscle weakness, learning disabilities and early death.

These illnesses are inherited through faults in the mother’s mitochondria – the tiny ‘engine rooms’ which power the cells.

The MDT procedure allows women to swap their diseased mitochondria for the healthy mitochondria taken from the egg of a second woman.

The first ‘three-parent babies’ have been born using the technique, it was revealed in a Freedom of Information response provided to the Guardian by the UK’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

While the babies will technically have two mothers, the second ‘mother’ in each case will have no real genetic link to the child, contributing only 0.1 per cent of her DNA.

Critics have previously expressed fears the successful use of the technique could pave the way for ‘designer’ babies.

But supporters say mitochondrial donation is a lifeline for up to 3,000 women in danger of passing on potentially deadly diseases.

The HFEA confirmed that a small number of babies have now been born in the UK after MDT.

It has not provided an exact number, but said the number was ‘less than five’ as of April.

The families involved have not been identified, but the first three-parent babies could have been born to two mums who knew each other, with eligible women understood to have asked friends to be egg donors.

Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), a charity which campaigns to help people affected by genetic conditions and infertility, said: ‘The first baby born by a new technique is aways big news but a cautious reaction is particularly appropriate in this case.

‘For the time being, the HFEA only gives permission for mitochondrial donation to be used on a case-by-case basis.

‘This is sensible, as it is still early days for this technology, and it needs to be monitored closely and carefully.’

Britain became the first country in the world to legalise three-parent babies under licence in 2015.

The Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life clinic was then given the green light to perform the procedure by the HFEA in 2017, in what was hailed as a ‘momentous day’.

Three-parent babies, using slightly varying methods, have already been born in countries including Mexico and Ukraine.

Controversially, it has been used abroad not only to prevent mitochondrial diseases being passed on, but as a method claimed to help an infertile woman conceive by using a second woman’s DNA.

British experts have said there is no evidence suggesting mitochondrial donation could work for this purpose.

The technique, used in this country to prevent mitochondrial disease only, removes the nucleus from the mother’s egg and puts it in an emptied-out egg donated by another woman.

But it is not without risk, and some experts are concerned moving the genetic material from one egg to another could affect the way in which the genes are expressed.

Disrupting the activity of genes might produce a child at increased risk of later health problems, such as cancer or diabetes.’

Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, said: ‘Mitochondrial donation treatment offers families with severe inherited mitochondrial illness the possibility of a healthy child.

‘The UK was the first country in the world to allow mitochondrial donation treatment within a regulatory environment.

‘The HFEA oversee a robust framework which ensures that mitochondrial donation is provided in a safe and ethical manner.

‘All applications for treatment are assessed on an individual basis against the tests set out in the law and only after independent advice from experts.

‘These are still early days for mitochondrial donation treatment and the HFEA continues to review clinical and scientific developments.’