Another celebrity, pregnant at 50! How old is too old to get pregnant?
If you follow celebrity news, you know it’s not uncommon to see a pregnancy or birth announcement from a glamorous movie star in her 40s or 50s. Walking the red carpet in designer gowns with pretty little baby bumps, they make it look so easy! But our infertility doctors in Lexington are here to tell you – it’s really not. How old is too old to get pregnant? Advanced maternal age is a factor, but the answer is much more complex than the number of birthdays a woman has celebrated.
How old is too old to get pregnant?
The first thing to understand is that a woman with a healthy uterus can carry a pregnancy at virtually any age. With the use of donor eggs, or her own eggs preserved through freezing, a woman doesn’t even need ovaries to pull off this feat. But in truth, most women who are 40 or older will need advanced fertility treatment, such as IVF, to get pregnant.
That’s because women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, and by the time they reach age 35, most of them have already been ovulated, month after month, over the last 20 or so years. Those that remain have also had a lot of time to degrade in quality, so many of the remaining eggs are not genetically normal or capable of resulting in a healthy pregnancy.
A woman in her mid to late 30s has a lower chance of conceiving each month than she did in her 20s or early 30s. After about age 37, a woman’s fertility begins to drop dramatically. By the time women reach their 40s, many have only about a 5% chance of getting pregnant in any given cycle, and their chances of having a baby with a chromosome disorder increase. A pregnancy in a woman 35 or older is also generally considered high-risk, requiring closer monitoring to prevent complications.
How do they do it at an advanced maternal age?
So why do we see so many female celebrities welcoming babies so much later in life? The answer is that many are probably using IVF, likely with donor eggs.
There are other factors to think about when considering the question, “how old is too old to get pregnant?” Some women take the plunge because they feel they are at a stable place in their lives financially, and have the time, patience and energy to devote to raising a child. Others may feel like their prime window for parenting has passed, and they worry about having a child who could someday lose their parents at a younger age.
For parents of any age, it’s important to ensure that a child has a strong support network of loving friends and family, and that may be an especially important consideration for people wanting to have kids later in life.
Talk it out with a professional
If you’re thinking about trying for pregnancy after 35, it’s a good idea to talk to our infertility doctors in Lexington about your plan – especially if you’ve been trying to conceive without success for six months or longer. Through fertility testing, we can tell you how much time you might have to try for pregnancy, and whether any treatment may be needed to help you succeed. We can even help you preserve your fertility now, so you can try for a baby when the time is right for you.
If you’re asking, how old is too old to get pregnant, arming yourself with information about your own fertility can provide peace of mind as you plan your future family. Contact us to schedule a consultation with an infertility doctor in Lexington to learn more about treatment options for women of advanced maternal age.
