Pill Might Delay Biological Clock

B O S T O N, July 20 -- A birth control pill being dreamed up by a Canadian researcher may someday let working women push the “snooze button” on their biological clocks.

The so-called “career pill,” which is at least 15 years from being on the market, would allow women to delay ovulation during their teens and 20s, resuming it later in life when they are ready to have children. It would also delay the onset of menopause into the late 50s or 60s.

The idea was floated by Roger Gosden, Ph.D., director of reproductive biology at McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada, during a meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproductive Medicine held earlier this week in Madison, Wis.

Delays Pregnancy and Menopause

In his address, called “Female Reproduction Through the Looking Glass,” Gosden noted that “if such a ‘career pill’ were developed, it would have double effect for family planning and postponement of menopause.”

A woman is born with all the eggs she will need in her reproductive lifetime, but by the time she reaches menopause, she is no longer able to produce them. Women frequently have more difficulty becoming pregnant in their mid-30s, as the number and quality of their eggs decline.

Gosden, author of the 1996 book Cheating Time: Science, Sex and Aging published by W.H. Freeman & Co., says he hopes to use genetic information to learn how to interrupt the body’s signal to release an egg monthly, preserving the use of her eggs until later in life.

This might allow women to pursue careers without worrying about the increased fertility problems that may arise past age 30, or allow women who have changed partners late in life to produce a new family, he elaborated, speaking at a press conference today at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada, where he is conducting the research.

Would the Eggs Remain Fertile?

“The big question would be, though, whether the eggs which have been preserved would be of sufficient quality to be fertile, and not be shot through will all sorts of problems,” Gosden said in a radio interview.