Woman, 59, is oldest in UK to be offered IVF

Doctors have agreed to treat Susan Tollefsen, who turns 60 in October, at the private London Women's Clinic on Harley Street, one of the most successful IVF units in the UK.

Normally, private clinics only treat women over 50 in exceptional circumstances. The NHS does not recommend IVF to women over the age of 40.

Tollefsen already has a two-year-old daughter, Freya, who was conceived at a Russian clinic after her mother was refused treatment in the UK because of her age. Her partner, Nick Mayer, a warehouse manager, is 11 years younger.

She said: "I'm still so full of life and healthy at 60 I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be treated."

But some family campaigners have criticised the decision, calling for a legal upper limit on fertility treatment, rather than simply guidelines. Clinics also risk having their licences suspended if they do not take the welfare of any resulting children into account when providing IVF treatment.

Tollefsen, from Laindon, Essex, became one of the UK's oldest first-time mothers in March 2008 when she gave birth at the age of 57. The embryo was created using sperm from Mayer and a donor egg.

She approached the London Women's Clinic in September and consulted with its medical director, Peter Bowen-Simpkins. The clinic's governance committee voted unanimously to allow treatment to go ahead on Thursday. Her consultation was filmed for a BBC documentary on the world's oldest mothers, to be screened later this month.

Tollefsen said: "I e-mailed so many British clinics asking to be treated here but they all said no because I was too old and didn't offer me a consultation. But the doctor (at the London clinic] I saw gave me hope.

"I really want to do it – 110 per cent. The clinic said they'd have a look if I definitely wanted to go ahead. I agree, there should be a cut-off point. Perhaps 65 is too old, but I'm still so healthy I don't see why I shouldn't be treated."

She added: "I just don't think it's acceptable to say that someone would be a good mother at 49-and-a-half, but not such a good mother at 50.

"The sad thing is that I had to run around Europe to find somewhere prepared to help me have my first baby."

Bowen-Simpkins, a respected consultant and spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the clinic had agreed to change its policy, and treat women over 50 on a case-by-case basis.

He said: "'No-one at the clinic has seriously opposed seeing these patients as individuals.

"Sue will still have to go through more detailed assessment. She'll have to be seen by our counsellor and get a supporting letter from her GP. We'll also want to know that her partner is 100 per cent supportive of her decision."

He said the fact Tollefsen already had a child and had a younger partner had helped them reach their decision.

Tollefsen would again have to rely on a donor egg fertilised by her partner's sperm, which would then be implanted into her womb. The London Women's Clinic has a success rate of 26 per cent for this treatment.

It has also decided to consider treating another 57-year-old woman, who has not been named.

But Tory MP Nadine Dorries last night called for parliament to set an upper age limit.

She said: "Once you pass the point of natural conception, that's when you should stop. We need to legislate for this because inevitably society will have to pick up the cost later. Perhaps the cut-off point could be extended by a couple of years into the early 50s, but moving as far as 60 – which is a huge leap – is slightly preposterous."