What was once primary infertility has become secondary infertility in our lives as we try and add to our family. I try and soak up every minute I can with Bailey and Cooper and try to accept that we may never have any more children, some people are completely content with two, I tell myself, why can't I be? After almost six years, we did finally have a child, two in fact. I told Ward just last night that we will have more, because we are stubborn and we don't give up easily.
The way I see it, I have another 45 years to keep trying to have another baby. I mean if 70 year old women in India can have babies that has to be promising news for me, right?
In all my research and reading over the past half decade, I have read alot about getting pregnant while you're young, while time is on your side. Being 35 on you due date is considered 'advanced maternal age'. What about 70?
Earlier this week a woman in India gave birth to a daughter, the result of IVF, at the 'advanced maternal age' of 70. Earlier this year a 70 year old woman gave birth to twins, the result of IVF and a year earlier, another woman gave birth to boy/girl twins, also the result of ...IVF, at age 67. Most IVF clinics here in America, they don't even allow women into their programs if they are in their early 40's, but I guess that is mainly if the women want to use their own eggs.
In case you were wondering, there is no way that these women were using their own eggs. Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, actually the number of eggs a woman carried peaks in utero and begins to decline almost immediately. By the time a girl reaches puberty more than half the eggs she started with are gone, and around 28 a woman's fertility and chances of becoming pregnant further lessen, even though some women have been able to get pregnant, using their own eggs, at 45, the chances become slimmer and slimmer. But 70, nope, not her eggs.
And in St. Louis, doctors have announced that they successfully transplated a full ovary from one sister to another that resulted in the birth of a baby girl early last month. So if anybody has an ovary they're not going to be using...
2 comments:
As at 61-year-old grandmother who has been caring for my youngest grandson since he was two months old (he's almost 3) I think women who chose to get pregnant at any age after 45 really need to know the incredible amount of energy it takes to keep up with a baby. Even if you've had children when you were younger, getting older takes a real toll on a woman's body and energy levels, and she may not recognize it until she's full-time with a new baby.
As far as 60- and 70-year-old women having babies, I personally have a hard time with that. I think it would be very hard to be a teenager with a mom who is in her 70s or 80s. The odds of having a parent die before you finish school, or having a parent with a chronic disease such as Alzheimer's are so great the I think it's fundamentally unfair to a child to make that choice.
On the other hand, just because I wouldn't do it, doesn't mean others shouldn't!
I completely agree with you Cheryle. My father is 70 and I wonder/worry how long he'll be around for his grandchildren, I can't imagine him being a father to an infant at this time in his life.
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