Can IVF Treatments Reverse A Woman's Biological Clock?

[seabeyond]

Modern reproductive technologies can give older women the same chances of having a baby as younger women, researchers reported Wednesday. The new study found that women age 31 and younger have about a 60 percent to 75 percent chance of having a baby after three IVF cycles. The chances drop to about 20 percent to 30 percent for women ages 41 or 42, and to about just 5 percent to 10 percent for those age 43 or older. But that's for women who are trying to get pregnant using their own eggs. The chances improve dramatically for a woman over 40 if she switches to using eggs donated by a younger woman, the researchers found. That essentially gives them the same chances they would have had in their 20s.

"It is good news," said Barbara Luke of Michigan State University, which led the study being published in The New England Journal of Medicine. "Older women could actually achieve live birth rates equivalent to that of younger women — anywhere from 60 to 80 percent after about three cycles." The study involved nearly 250,000 women who underwent more than 470,000 attempts to get pregnant using in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Researchers found that infertile women who try IVF at least three times have chances of success that are equivalent to those of fertile women of the same age trying to conceive naturally.

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And aside from that, many worry about perpetuating the misconception that IVF can truly reverse the biological clock. "Technology hasn't solved the biological clock," said Rosanna Hertz, a sociologist at Wellesley College. "For older women, they still are subject to their clock ticking." IVF is expensive and unpleasant; the hormones women have to take can be risky. In addition, a woman who uses eggs from a donor is not genetically related to her child. "There is a sense of loss that she can't conceive a child who is genetically related to her and that they won't share necessarily the same traits or talents or whatever," Hertz said.

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"It's really hard to have any kind of a serious professional life and have your children in your early 20s, when you're body is best for it [and] it's easy to get pregnant," said Barbara Katz Rothman of the City University of New York. Far fewer women would need IVF, she says, if society took steps to make it easier for women to have babies when they are younger, such as making day care more affordable and paid maternity leave longer.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/06/27/155774331/can-ivf-treatments-reverse-a-womans-biological-clock?ft=1&f=1001&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

[sufrommich]

1. The last paragraph seems far more doable than

risky medical procedures that may or may not work.

"It's really hard to have any kind of a serious professional life and have your children in your early 20s, when you're body is best for it it's easy to get pregnant," said Barbara Katz Rothman of the City University of New York. Far fewer women would need IVF, she says, if society took steps to make it easier for women to have babies when they are younger, such as making day care more affordable and paid maternity leave longer. "

[seabeyond]

2. ya well, i learned a decade and half ago, we really cant have it all. and after this last week

of articles about women having it all, the last two articles i saw was, women cant have it all, and the superwomen need to be honest.

i was older having kids. for different reasons. i spent 20's taking care of me, finding my boundaries, what i want in life, who i am going forward. there was no one i was interested in. certainly wouldnt want to settle, though i could have there are reasons women are waiting until later years to even hook up with a man, let alone having a baby. and there are a lot of women that approach later years after having decided to not have a baby, change their mind.

personally i am ambivalent about the article.

[sufrommich]

3. I wouldn't say I'm ambivalent, if women want to have

children later in life more power to them,I just wish it wasn't an either or situation for one gender and not the other. Women will never be equals in the marketplace until the burden of child care is removed as an obstacle on a woman's career path.