LONDON (Reuters):

The oldest woman ever to give birth deceived doctors to get the fertility treatment that let her have twins at 67 last month, a Sunday newspaper said.

Carmela Bousada, who gave birth to twins Christian and Pau on December 29, convinced a Los Angeles clinic she was 55, the cut-off age for their in-vitro fertilisation programme, Britain's News of the World said.

"They didn't ask for my age or my passport. I may look tired now but before the births I did look slim and a lot younger," the newspaper quoted Bousada as saying in an interview.

The clinic, the Pacific Fertility Center in Los Angeles, was not immediately available for comment. The clinic has confirmed in media reports that it treated Bousada.

Low success rate

It says its success rate for women over the age of 43 is just two per cent, compared to 56 per cent for women under 34.

Bousada, a Spaniard, sold her home in Spain to raise 30,000 pounds (US$60,000) to pay for the treatment in the United States. She chose donor eggs from a "pretty, brown-haired 18-year-old" and sperm from a blond, blue-eyed Italian American.

"I picked them from photos in a catalogue. It was a bit like studying an estate agent's brochure and choosing a house," the paper quoted her as saying.

First, she went through hormone therapy, which allowed her to have periods for the first time in 18 years. She became pregnant on the first attempt.

She insisted she would not have trouble raising the twins as a single mother, despite her age.

"My mum lived to be 101 and there's no reason I couldn't do the same."