Infertility research could cure 'bad' eggs

Older women struggling to have children could turn their "bad" eggs good again after a breakthrough by a South Australian researcher.

University of Adelaide fertility researcher Dr Hannah Brown has found haemoglobin, known for making blood cells red, in healthy eggs but missing from damaged ones.

She took out the Women's and Children's Hospital Foundation's Young Investigator Award this week for adding haemoglobin back into "bad" mice eggs and undoing much of the damage.

"It was shocking because everyone just knew it as the thing that was in blood," Dr Brown told AAP on Thursday.

"We didn't actually believe the finding was real for a very long time because haemoglobin was never before found in an egg.

"We hope that technology like this will be able to give (less fertile) women an opportunity to mend their broken eggs."

Dr Brown said she expected human trials to begin overseas soon.

"The most important message in all of this for your eggs is that prevention is better than a cure and thinking about fertility really early, even before you want to start a family, is important," she said.