Falling pregnant ‘10 times harder at 43’

3D printed ovaries could help not only women who have undergone cancer treatment, but those who have experienced problems such as early menopause or genetic diseases. Picture: Freeimages

3D printed ovaries could help not only women who have undergone cancer treatment, but those who have experienced problems such as early menopause or genetic diseases. Picture: Freeimages

Published Nov 6, 2014

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London - It is ten times harder for a woman to become pregnant at 43 than at 37, doctors have warned.

The rapid speeding up of a woman’s biological clock means that by the time she is 43, she will need to go through 44 eggs on average to produce just one normal embryo. At 37 she needs just 4.4, on average.

A woman typically produces one egg a month, so this means it will take her almost four years to conceive – rather than only four months.

Researcher Meredith Brower said that the number of eggs needed for a viable pregnancy rises “almost exponentially” after 42, and urged women to freeze their eggs without delay.

British experts said that while, ideally, women would have their babies in their twenties, the realities of modern life mean many have no choice but to wait.

The research comes amid concern that growing numbers of women are risking the heartbreak of infertility by leaving it until middle-age to try to start a family.

Education, careers, lack of money and the hunt for ‘Mr Right’ are all causing women to put motherhood on the back burner.

Nearly half of all British babies are now born to women aged 30 and older, and the number born to women in their late thirties has almost trebled in recent years.

Controversially, internet companies Facebook and Apple are offering to pay female employees to freeze their eggs. The “perk” – at the moment for employees in the US only – is aimed at boosting the number of women staff by allowing them to focus on their careers without sacrificing the opportunity to have children later in life.

Dr Brower, of the University of California, Los Angeles, analysed data on 198 women aged between 20 and 45 having IVF treatment.

This included how many eggs they produced, and the health of the embryos produced after they were fertilised in a dish. Not surprisingly, the younger women produced more eggs – and more genetically normal embryos.

Dr Brower calculated that a woman under 35 would on average need just 3.8 eggs to make one healthy embryo.

Between the ages of 35 and 37, 4.4 eggs would be needed. The figure starts to climb at 38. Women aged between 38 and 40 need 9.4 eggs and women aged 41 to 42 need 10.1.

The number then soars, as fertility plummets, with women aged over 42 needing 44 eggs, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference in Honolulu heard.

Importantly, the women studied were fertile, despite having IVF, and so it is thought the results apply to women trying to conceive naturally.

Experts say that women who want to freeze their eggs should do so in their late twenties or early thirties to have the best chance of success later.

But IVF pioneer Lord Winston has said that fewer than eight percent of those who thaw their eggs and have IVF will go on to have a baby.

Around 500 women a year pay up to £3 000 to freeze their eggs until they want to start a family. - Daily Mail

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