Postponing motherhood beyond the age of 40 is an increasingly common reality, and is one of the most important decisions in a woman's life.
For this reason, it tends to be postponed until a time of greater economic, professional and emotional stability.
The means chosen to achieve pregnancy will be the first thing to consider. Female fertility is closely linked to a woman's ovarian reserve, which is usually optimal until the age of 26. From that age, the ovarian reserve decreases, dropping significantly from the age of 35 onwards.
By the third decade of life, the initial female endowment of eggs, which at birth was approximately 2 million, has drastically reduced to only 30,000. This numerical decrease is accompanied by a deterioration in the quality of the remaining eggs, which increases the difficulties in achieving and maintaining a pregnancy to term.
As we age, the ovaries age, causing genetic mutations and aneuploidy to accumulate in the gametes. This could lead to miscarriages and diseases in the future baby. Therefore, age is a key factor that has a negative impact on the quality of eggs.
The preservation of reproductive capacity is achieved through a set of techniques designed to maintain the procreation potential in both men and women.
Among the available options for fertility preservation are sperm cryopreservation and egg vitrification. Gamete vitrification allows us to postpone the decision to become parents for a later time in life.
Through the egg freezing technique, we can anticipate difficulties that may arise when deciding to become a mother at a later age.
This technique allows us to obtain the patient's oocytes in their optimal state. This is usually between 25 and 30 years of age. They will then be preserved until she decides to become pregnant.
Despite the obstacles that may prevent you from becoming a mother beyond the age of 40, there are several assisted reproduction treatments that can help you achieve pregnancy:
In vitro fertilisation with a woman's own eggs requires that the woman's ovarian reserve is adequate at the time of the egg retrieval. However, after the age of 40, the quality of the eggs, and therefore the success rate with conventional IVF, is very low.
In these cases, IVF-Life's assisted reproduction specialists recommend doing the fertility treatment with a pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. This test makes it possible to identify healthy embryos before transferring them, thus avoiding possible illnesses in the future baby or miscarriages.
If it is not possible to obtain enough quality eggs for IVF, it is always possible to resort to egg donation.
This fertility treatment consists of performing an in vitro fertilisation with eggs from an anonymous donor and sperm from the partner or from an anonymous donor. This treatment has high pregnancy rates.
Thanks to embryo donation, also known as embryo adoption, there is the possibility of adopting a healthy, high-quality embryo previously donated by a couple who has already fulfilled their desire to become parents.
This is an option that speeds up treatment times and reduces economic costs.
Postponing childbearing until the age of 40 can have many advantages such as personal maturity, financial stability and better family planning.
Other advantages include emotional and professional stability, advances in reproductive health, and more thoughtful family decision-making. Moreover, support networks also tend to be stronger at this age. However, medical care to manage potential risks must be taken into account.
It is important to keep in mind that, although there are many advantages, pregnancy after the age of 40 carries certain medical risks, such as an increased risk of recurrent miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and premature birth.
Therefore, it is important to consider these potential complications when planning a pregnancy later in life.