Age no barrier for pregnancy

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Age no barrier for pregnancy

 

http://health.nzoom.com/health_detail/0,2811,178627-399-402,00.html

 

 

 

Age is no barrier to postmenopausal women in their fifties having a baby

from IVF donor eggs, a US study has found.

 

The study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association

(JAMA) today, investigated pregnancies in women aged 50 and older who

conceived after in vitro fertilisation.

 

It found there was no definitive medical reason based on age to exclude that

age group from attempting to have a baby with donor eggs.

 

" Appropriately screened women aged 50 years or older can successfully

conceive via oocyte (egg) donation and experience similar pregnancy

rates...as younger recipients, " the report said.

 

Dr Richard J Paulson, of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of

Southern California, said egg donation was initially developed as a therapy

for premature ovarian failure.

 

However, wealthy older American women were increasingly using it as a

solution to the " oh-my-God-I-forgot-to-have-a-baby " syndrome.

 

Australian fertility expert Dr David Molloy, who chairs the IVF Directors

Group, sparked controversy recently with calls for education campaigns

encouraging women to start thinking about falling pregnant earlier.

 

Today he said the US study confirmed evidence that women in their 50s could

safely and successfully have a baby - as long as they were prepared to use

another woman's eggs.

 

" There's no problem with an older woman becoming pregnant...but if you're

going to leave your pregnancies into your 40s then frequently you're going

to have to use someone else's genetic material, " he said.

 

" Women see these movie stars who at 49 are getting pregnant on IVF. What

they don't realise in the fine print is that they didn't use their own

eggs. "

 

He said Australian women were mirroring US trends to an extent in terms of

using donor eggs to overcome age-related infertility.

 

However, there was less scope for them to do so in Australia because, unlike

the US where egg donors are commercially available for around $US30,000,

Australian law bans any trade in human tissue.

 

The US study analysed 77 postmenopausal women with no chronic medical

conditions who underwent 121 embryo transfer procedures from 1991 to 2001 as

part of a US university reproduction program.

 

The women were aged between 50-63 with an average age of 53. Donors ranged

from 22-33.

 

There were 55 clinical pregnancies for a 45.5 per cent pregnancy rate.

 

Forty-two of the women, or 54.5 per cent, had live births and three carried

two consecutive pregnancies.

 

The researchers noted more complications relating to preeclampsia and

gestational diabetes in the over-50s.

 

However, they said these were manageable with modern medical technology.

 

 

 

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