(June 15 2010)-- When I wrote 40 is the New 20 for Having Babies [1] and 40 is the New 20 for Having Babies-II [2], people had concerns and raised questions. To dispel misinformation and to learn the facts not only about the safety of having a baby in your 40s, but also about how far assisted reproductive technology has come, I invited the authors of A Baby at Last! The Couple's Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant--from Cutting-Edge Treatments to Commonsense Wisdom [3], Drs. Zev Rosenwaks and Marc Goldstein from Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, to be guest bloggers. Here's what they have to tell us:

A Baby in Your 40s

We are able to help young couples in their 20s who are having a difficult time achieving a pregnancy, couples in their 30s who may already have one child but can't seem to have another one, and even women into their 40s and 50s who thought having a baby was beyond their reach.

Although age has a significant impact on pregnancy outcome and in fertility, advancing age alone should not prevent you from trying to become pregnant. More than one-third of all pregnancies and births in the United States occur in women who are in their 30s or older. Good prenatal obstetrical care has made pregnancies in older women safer than they were 20 to 30 years ago. 

If you're over 40 and trying to conceive, you're in good company. Technological advances, such as better in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques, now make it possible for women in their 40s to have babies. With the extension of life expectancy for older women, the benefits of hormonal replacement therapy, and general improvement of the health and living conditions of older women, very late childbearing has become more socially acceptable.

Some women who seek to conceive after age 40 have no difficulty in achieving a pregnancy. For those who do have problems, prompt and thorough evaluation and aggressive treatments are crucial. The chance of becoming pregnant with one's own eggs is very difficult after the age of 42-43. Many women in this age group must turn to egg donation. While IVF success rates go down drastically after age 37, the success of donor eggs remains high.

One simple blood test - measuring the level of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in your blood on day 3 of your menstrual cycle - has become an important test to assess the ovarian reserve, a term used to describe the number of eggs remaining in a woman's ovary. The pituitary gland produces FSH, which is responsible for the development of the ovarian follicle and egg each month. When the ovaries have very few eggs remaining, the pituitary gland senses this and begins to produce and release higher and higher amounts of FSH in an effort to push the ovary. If your FSH levels are consistently elevated, you have an extremely low chance of conceiving and carrying to term; if your FSH levels are slightly above normal, this suggests that you have a lower chance of achieving a pregnancy. Read more...

 

Source: Psychology Today