Carolyne Ness, now 59, defended her choice to become an older mum on ITV’s This Morning after forking out £4,500 to adopt an embryo.
Speaking to presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, Carolyne Ness explained that she had to travel to India in order to become a first-time mother at the age of 58 to her son Javed.
Originally from Fife, Scotland, Carolyne emigrated to Australia but was not able to get IVF due to age restrictions both there and in the UK.
In Australia, women are not able to undergo IVF past the average age of natural menopause, which is usually interpreted as 52 years of age.
Our own NHS guidelines state that women under 40 are eligible for three IVF cycles, and women aged between 40 and 42 are eligible for one cycle. Some private clinics provide the treatment post-50.
After being told she was infertile in her thirties, Carolyne waited nearly two decades and travelled to New Delhi for a £4,500 embryo adoption procedure.
The treatment, in which donated embryos and sperm are used, is also available in Cyrus.
Speaking on This Morning via video link from Sydney, Carolyne spoke about her choice to have the procedure and be an older mother, saying she had plans in place with her family should anything happen to her.
She said: 'My sister is willing to take him, she is five years younger and my best friend who was my birthing partner, she is 10 years younger.
‘She is very willing to take him if anything should happen.
‘My family is long-lived he (her father) was in his 90s, my mother passed when she was in her mid-80s, just before Javed was born.'
Left single at 40 after a divorce, Carolyne revealed she still longed to be a mum and had considered adoption, but explained it is an extremely expensive and complicated process in Australia.
For her embryo adoption, Carolyne was given the profiles of 10 embryo donors and chose a 21-year-old Indian woman. She then selected an American-Caucasian donor from six sperm donors.
She said: ‘I chose the ones that felt right for me.’
Three fertilised embryos were then implanted in Carolyne’s womb after tests confirmed she was healthy enough.
Her son Javed was born at 37 weeks last November by a planned Caesarean.
Carolyne said: ‘My life is just complete now that I have got my baby and I am so happy that I made the choice to go ahead.'
‘Even though I am an older mother I am coping very well and he is very loved and very much wanted.’
In an interview with the Daily Record, Carolyne added that she hadn’t wanted children when she was younger, and was diagnosed with ‘unexplained fertility’ after trying to get pregnant for a decade with her ex-husband.
She told the publication: ‘I had given up hope anyone would call me mummy. As a teenager I presumed I’d start a family in my 20s, but I didn’t meet my ex-husband until I was 30. We tried to get pregnant, but at 40 a doctor said I had unexplained infertility.’
‘Our marriage did not survive that so I found myself single and childless.’
