London: Menopause could be eliminated within 20 years as anti-ageing treatments are extended to the ovaries, a US scientist has predicted.
Aubrey de Grey, co-founder of the Sens Research Foundation in California, said that rapid progress in stem cell and regenerative therapies meant that current age limits on when women can conceive and give birth were likely to all but vanish in the foreseeable future.
He said anti-ageing treatments can extend to the female reproductive life-span because the ovaries were "just another organ", 'The Times' reported.
"We could rejuvenate the ovary by stimulating or replenishing stem cells, we could create a whole new ovary through tissue engineering like an artificial heart, there are all manner of possibilities. There's work going on already," said de Grey.
Menopause occurs in females in midlife, during their late 40s or early 50s, signalling the end of the fertile phase of a woman's life. Menopause symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats and abnormal vaginal bleeding.
Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, dismissed de Grey's claims as "wildly over-ambitious".
Aubrey de Grey has previously claimed that there is no reason why human beings should not live to be 1,000 years old.
