Why Women After 40 Years Of Age Are Confused About IVF Treatment

Age plays an important role and shares an inverse relationship with fertility.

As women grow old, their fertility also decreases. This phenomenon does not ideally compliment the current trend of women conceiving after 40 years of age.

Benefits

Benefits in indulging in motherhood late are like stable and established career and family, dedicate more time and money to raise children, mentally and emotionally prepared to extend the family, Financially stronger for better education.

Problems of late pregnancy.

A woman’s fertility rate starts decreasing significantly after the age of 35 and being pregnant after could result in an increased risk for cesarean delivery, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, hypertension and premature labor and birth. The increased complications enter with age as being an older mother seeks much more out of one’s body and hence, can be more physically demanding.

Research has shown that paternal age matters too, if either parent is older than 40, the risk for neuro cognitive disorders, congenital conditions, incidence of chromosome anomalies such as Down Syndrome and even of childhood cancers can be higher. Either of these complications are not necessary to take place, but awareness regarding the same is crucial. While it is statistically more arduous to conceive after 40, with mass loss, and becoming more prone to high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, pregnancy also gets more challenging and burdensome with increasing age. According to research, vaginal delivery is less probable after this age, which is primarily due to the fertility treatments that can increase the risk for premature birth. Increased risk of preeclampsia may also necessitate a cesarean delivery for the safety of both mother and baby.

The consequence of age on egg quality is pessimistic, as some eggs released by the ovaries are not viable for fertilization, may have chromosomal abnormalities or not be implanted correctly in the uterus, eventually resulting in miscarriage. The decreased quality of egg, impending early menopause that causes women to ovulate less frequently and have more spaced-out periods, all impact the ability to conceive, and contribute to the risk of miscarriage, and Down’s syndrome in pregnancy.

Pregnancy with IVF/ICSI

One of the most commonly used medical techniques at this age is in vitro fertilization (IVF) that involves intake of medications by the female partner to stimulate ovaries for productions of more eggs that are surgically harvested and combined with a sperm in a laboratory; then, the embryo is implanted back into the uterus of the woman. IVF increases the chances of getting pregnant and successfully addresses the challenges regarding blocked fallopian tubes, reduced number of eggs or premature ovarian failure with age in women and reduced sperm count in men, and other various issues that impact the capability of fertilization of egg.

It’s an advantageous option for women over 40, as this procedure along with embryo biopsy makes certain that only viable embryos that are not affected by various chromosomal complications are implanted in the uterus; thereby, providing negligible to no risk of resulting in children with genetic abnormalities.

Success rate at 40

IVF’s success rate depends on a multitude of factors – age, duration of infertility, its cause, quality of the sperm, egg and embryo, the endometrial development and luteal phase post transfer. Considering the above factors, the success rate after 40 years ranges from 5-10% . There are few advanced techniques along with ICSI like assisted hatching, pooling of embryos, Blastocyst transfer, Pregenetic testing, Intraovarian PRP etc. Most of the clinics now have adopted these latest techniques along with freezing of the embryos, to increase success rate considerably. Latest increasing trend in India is freezing of eggs at young age to use them later to achieve healthy baby with those frozen eggs.

Hence, although getting pregnant after the age of 40 brings with it possibilities of many risks and complications, medical advancement with an aim to manage the above mentioned risks, provides a worth full feasibility for a safe and healthy pregnancy.