B O S T O N, July 20, 2000 -- 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.

“If you could discover the secret of delaying egg depletion, you may also discover the secret of delaying egg degradation,”says Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the center for reproductive medicine and infertility at Cornell University, in Manhattan. “If you can do both, you can overcome the problem of age-related infertility.”

But other medical experts say the current birth control pill already allows women the ability to delay childbearing until they have established their careers.

“I’d like to see some evidence on the utility and effectiveness of this approach,” says Dr. David Grimes, a gynecologist at the Family Health International, a nonprofit reproductive research institute in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “I don’t know many women who’d want to continue to have their period into their 50s or 60s.”

Gosden made headlines last year when his research led to an operation that successfully grafted a piece of an Arizona woman’s ovary back into her body, after she’d had her ovaries removed earlier for medical reasons. The transplanted ovary was able to produce an egg, reversing her menopause, and possibly allowing her to get pregnant.

Fifteen Years to Market

The “career pill” is at least 15 years from being on the market, emphasized a spokeswoman at the Royal Victoria Hospital. It is unclear whether the final product would be a pill, a nasal spray, or even an injectable device like Depo-Provera, a quarterly hormone shot that also prevents ovulation.

“It’s [Gosden’s concept] still in the research stage,” says ovarian animal researcher Paul Fricke, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who attended the conference and heard Gosden’s speech. “But the potential for it is quite amazing.”