The making of ‘old eggs’: the science of reproductive ageing between fertility and anti-ageing technologies

Abstract

This article proposes going back in the history of reproductive medicine to shed light on the role of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the making of ‘old eggs’. Focusing on two key technologies – egg donation and cytoplasmic transfer – both of which contributed significantly to the production of scientific knowledge about reproductive ageing, the article suggests that ART can be analysed as ‘in-vivo models’ playing a pivotal role in the shift from age as a demographic variable to ageing understood in biological terms. It will shed light on the role of ART in locating age in the eggs and producing a cellular understanding of fertility decline. It argues that ART not only offers new means of reconfiguring the biological clock by extending fertility, but also reconfigures the biology of reproductive ageing itself. This becomes both the target and the means for new technological interventions, imaginaries and norms, anchored in women’s bodies and a more plastic biology, and thereby illuminates hitherto underexplored aspects of the encounter between the science and technology of reproduction and anti-ageing.