A mum denied IVF for being too old has given birth at 58 after being treated abroad.

Single Carolyne Ness had to pay £4,500 for the op in India as the NHS and private clinics would have turned her down because of her age.

In a procedure known as ‘embryo adoption’, three donor embryos fertilised by a sperm donor were implanted into Carolyne’s womb – and she gave birth to son Javed in November.

But her story will divide opinions in the week that marks 40 years since the first – the first ‘test tube’ baby, Louise Brown, was born.

While Louise’s birth was heralded as a medical breakthrough, the case of Carolyne – one of the oldest mums to give birth to a first child – will divide opinions.

It raises questions over whether IVF – meant to help infertile or same sex couples achieve their dream of a family – should be offered to older women who may never see their child grow up.

(Image: Phoenix Features)

Javed was born by a planned C-section at 37 weeks, after her baby’s growth worryingly slowed down. He now faces being raised by a mum old enough to be his grandmother.

But divorcee Carolyne insists she has as much right to become a mum as a younger woman. She says: “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.”

Hopeful she still had time, Carolyne dated but never met a man she wanted to start a family with. In despair, she emigrated from Fife to Sydney to start a new life.

“I made friends, but it devastated me to hit 50 and still not be a mum,” she says. She considered adoption but found it complicated and dear in Australia.

"While looking at IVF, she discovered she was considered too old for the procedure in her new country and that in the UK the NHS refused it to over-40s and private clinics to over-50s.

Then a pal suggested embryo adoption, a procedure offered to women her age only in Cyprus and India.

She says: ”I wanted my baby to grow inside me. I knew that if my womb was healthy, there wasn’t any reason why I could not sustain a pregnancy.

"People may question whether I’m ‘playing God’. But anyone of any age needing fertility assistance depends on IVF to help.

(Image: Moments Captured by Jaclyn)

“The technology was pioneered in the UK, yet women my age have to go abroad.”

Tests confirmed her womb was healthy enough so she planned her trip to India. “Friends warned it would be exhausting and that I’d miss my freedom,” she says. “But they were all mothers already.

“They had no idea how much I wanted to give up my freedom to love a child like they had.

“I have thought about how much of my child’s life I’ll be around for. And I considered who would look after him should anything happen to me.

“My sister Rhona is five years younger than me and my best friend Silvana, 10 years younger. Both assured me they would always be there for my child.

“Ultimately, no-one knows what is around the corner. Younger women than me become mums and then sadly, their circumstances change too. I couldn’t let ‘what ifs’ stop me.”

Carolyne used her savings to cover the £4,500 treatment at the International Fertility Centre in New Delhi in March last year.

She made her choice of egg and sperm donors from a list of 10. “I picked a 21-year-old Indian woman, who liked dancing, and imported sperm from a 6ft white American who worked in IT and had dark hair and brown eyes. Neither donor has any legal right to contact the child.”

What is embryo adoption? By Dr. Marisa López-Teijón, Director of Institut Marques, a centre of Assisted Reproduction with offices in Barcelona, Milan, London and Ireland Institut Marques was a pioneer in embryo adoption, launching the procedure in 2004. It’s a huge success. Patients are usually couples with more than four failed fertility treatment attempts. Embryo adoption is completely painless. The uterus is prepared to receive the embryos through oestrogen patches and vaginal progesterone tablets. After a few days, the embryos are thawed and transferred into the womb. Then, after 14 days, the pregnancy test is performed. Despite it’s name, embryo adoption does not require any formal adoption procedure. Now patients from 124 different nationalities, including the UK, have used our clinic.

Three fertilised embryos were grown in the clinic for five days, then transferred into Carolyne’s womb.

Two weeks later, a blood test back in Australia confirmed her pregnancy.

“I had waited a lifetime to be pregnant and now I had two strangers to thank for my ­happiness,” she says. “But I wasn’t at the finish line yet.”

Carolyne was monitored regularly and Silvana agreed to be her birthing partner.

She exercised and meditated throughout. She says people “stared” at her baby bump. “I didn’t mind. I was proud to show off what my body was capable of,” she adds.

At 35 weeks, Javed’s growth slowed so Carolyne’s doctor scheduled a C-section for two weeks later. The baby arrived weighing 5lb 20z.

“He was, and still is, perfect. He was everything I could have hoped for and more,” she says.

“I take him swimming and I’ll teach him to ski one day. I’ll be 60 next March, but I have plenty of energy.

"I could not love Javed more even if he was made from my own egg. He will grow up in no doubt as to how loved and wanted he is.

“There is no point focusing on how old Javed will be when I die. We focus on enjoying every day of every year we have together.”

(Image: Nicholas Bowman/Sunday Mirror)

It’s still hard to believe – they’re my little miracles

Carla Crozier, 36, from Grays, Essex had 16-month-old quadruplets Isla, Demi, Alyse and Milla through IVF, with odds of 70 million to one

My husband Paul and I spent five years trying to conceive. We had lots of tests and tried many different things before we were referred for IVF.

There’s a lot of heartache when you have failed attempts.

We qualified for three goes on the NHS and had our daughter Darcie, four.

We self-funded two more rounds after Darcie – and I got pregnant both times but I miscarried.

I still had hope, I knew I would have another baby and wanted to do anything I could to keep trying.

In 2016 we took out a loan for our final attempt, bringing the total we’d spent on IVF up to £16,000.

When we went for our scan at seven weeks we were told we had triplets but they found a fourth baby at our 12-week scan.

It’s still hard to believe – they’re my little miracles.

IVF provided the answer for all my dreams.

(Image: Emma Tasker)

I was so determined I lost 3stone to qualify for IVF

Emma Tasker, 34, a maternity care assistant from Dartford, Kent, calls her two-year-old daughter Phoebe her "IVF miracle"

After our marriage in 2013, my husband Matthew and I began trying for a baby. It wasn’t happening and it got really stressful.

We were told we needed IVF and I lost three stone in four months in order to qualify. I was very determined to become a mum. Our first appointment was in May 2015.

At first I just didn’t respond to the drugs and a week or so in I was advised to cancel and start my cycle from the beginning.

But I asked the consultant if there was any chance it could work and decided I had to go for it. I got three eggs, two of them were fertilised and Phoebe took.

I found out I was pregnant that September and she was born in May 2016.

We feel that we are very blessed. We don’t have as much money and we’re exhausted all the time, but Phoebe is just fantastic.

For and against IVF at 50-plus

No: Professor Tim Child, Medical Director at Oxford Fertility, for NHS and private patients

Most countries don’t treat women in their 50s because of the health risk to mother and baby.

Pretty much all complications in pregnancy, some of which can be very severe, increase significantly in older women.

The risks include high blood pressure, which can cause pre-eclampsia, diabetes and blood clots.

In the UK, there’s absolutely no way a patient would have had three embryos put back, as happened to Carolyne. And with that, the chances of a multiple birth rise significantly as does the risk to a 58-year-old woman like her.

People go abroad for treatment because of age or to save costs, but in the UK IVF is very regulated and the treatment very trustworthy.

In some other countries, the amount of regulation is minimal if any.

Yes: Sharon Cutts, from Boston, Lincs, Britain's oldest mum of triplets in 2016 aged 55 after treatment in Cyprus

Good on her, I’m pleased for her. If she’s fit and healthy then why not? It doesn’t matter what age she is. You can die young when you’ve got kids. You don’t know what’s round the corner.

As long as she can support her children, like my partner Stuart and I can support ours, that’s fine.

I did it so Stuart, who is 15 years younger than me, could have children and his mum could have some grandchildren. I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t fit and healthy, or if I’d had any medical problems.

The triplets are two years and three months old now. They’re into everything. I think I spoil them more than my four older children.

We’re both juggling the kids and work and we’re doing fine.

When my story came out, I got positives and negatives. I was called stupid and told it wasn’t fair for the children.

It WAS fair for the children.

I have thought about being an old mum but I’m hoping to be here when they grow older. When they’re in their 20s I’ll be 80 odd.

I work out in the gym, do weight training, and I work as a staff nurse.

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I’ve paid all my IVF money off, I got a loan to have £5,000 treatment in North Cyprus, where they treat women up to the age of 60.

I have no regrets at all.