AMERICAN scientists say they have found a way to produce human eggs from stem cells, raising hope of an advance in treating infertility in women.

The researchers say their discovery has swept away the belief women have a limited stock of eggs, and replaces it with the theory that supply is continuously replenished from precursor cells in ovaries.

Scientists say they have found a way to produce human eggs from stem cells. Credit:Paul Harris

''The prevailing dogma in our field for the better part of the last 50 or 60 years was that young girls at birth were given a bank account of eggs at birth that's not renewable,'' said Jonathan Tilly, director of the Vincent Centre for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the research.

Dr Tilly said that as a result of the findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, ''we might get to the point of having an unlimited source of human eggs''.