SCIENTISTS have turned skin cells into egg cells that can form an embryo, a study shows.

The discovery could help women who have used up their eggs in older ages as well as those who lost them during cancer treatment get pregnant, US researchers said.

It could also allow gay male couples to have children sharing both fathers' DNA, they suggested.

Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of Oregon Health & Science University, said: “The goal is to produce eggs for patients who don’t have their own eggs.”

Around one in seven British couples — 3.5million people — are affected by infertility.

Girls are born with a fixed number of eggs that mature in the ovaries and are released over time.

When they are born, they have around 2million and this reduces to around 25,000 by the age of 37, according to the

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