Pregnant Again at 46 and I Dont Have Normal Symptoms
Kelly Preston, with husband John Travolta, is the latest celebrity to get pregnant in her late 40s.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Doctors: Getting pregnant in belatedly 40s or early 50s is non difficult, just use donor eggs
- It's highly unusual for a woman to get pregnant on her ain after age 45
- Older pregnancies tin thrive, only there is greater risk of high blood pressure, diabetes
(CNN) -- This month, extra Kelly Preston announced that she was meaning at the age of 47, prompting TV talk prove discussions about the marvels of mod medicine that allowed Preston and her hubby, player John Travolta, to have a baby so late in life.
Merely 47 -- that's naught. Compared with another women, Preston's practically a baby.
Last year, Dr. David Kreiner, a reproductive endocrinologist in New York, helped a adult female have a baby at 54. Dr. Jamie Grifo, also in New York, recently helped a woman get pregnant at age 55.
Both doctors say these days, information technology's not that hard to get pregnant in your belatedly 40s or early 50s -- every bit long equally you have two things: someone else's eggs and at least $16,000 or and then.
"Virtually women can get pregnant with donor eggs," said Kreiner, the medical managing director of East Coast Fertility in Plainview, New York. "The only reason you wouldn't exist able to is if yous accept issues with your uterus, such as scarring or fibroids nosotros can't operate on. Simply just about i to 5 percent of women have those problems."
And so with donor eggs, could a woman get pregnant at, say, age 80?
"Theoretically, i would think there's no age limit," Kreiner said. "Just information technology hasn't been tested."
Preston, who hasn't said whether she conceived naturally or with the help of donor eggs or whatever other form of applied science, joins a listing of celebrities who became meaning in their mid- to tardily 40s. According to People magazine, actresses Geena Davis had a infant at age 46, Beverly D'Angelo at 49, Marcia Cross at 44 and supermodel Iman at 45. Extra Holly Hunter had twins at 47.
CNN interactive: More Hollywood moms over twoscore
When celebrities get significant late in life, women sometimes assume they got pregnant naturally, reproductive endocrinologists say.
"They come up in and say, 'Well, then-and-so got pregnant, and she'south 47. My husband and I have been trying for and so long. Why tin can't I go meaning?' " said Dr. Hilton Kort, founder of Reproductive Biological science Associates in Atlanta, Georgia. "I endeavor to explain to them, we don't know how that celebrity got pregnant."
It's highly unusual for a adult female to get pregnant on her own after age 45. According to the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention, in 2008 at that place were 0.vii births per 1,000 women ages 45 to 49, compared with ix.ix births per ane,000 women ages 44 to xl.
Here are some questions and answers about having a babe that late in life.
Similar Kelly Preston, I'g 47. What are my chances of getting pregnant naturally?
Slim to none, doctors say.
"Spontaneous pregnancy [rates for] someone 47 is VERY low," Kort wrote in an e-mail, explaining that your chances of conceiving naturally at that age are less than 5 percent each month, and the miscarriage rate in the starting time trimester is 70 to 80 per centum.
"It's not impossible that someone aged 47 [got pregnant] without assistance, but it's highly unlikely," he adds.
What are my chances of getting pregnant at age 47 if I use in-vitro fertilization and my own eggs?
"Success with IVF at this age with patient'southward own eggs is practically unheard of," said Kreiner, of East Coast Fertility.
The odds are so depression that Kort highly discourages women that age from fifty-fifty attempting IVF with their own eggs.
"Forty-three is pretty much my cutoff for IVF with a woman's own eggs. Occasionally, I'll practice information technology at 44," he said. "The success rate is under 5 percentage. When I explain this to women, they don't even want to try."
What are my chances of getting pregnant at age 47 if I use IVF and donor eggs?
Kort says he has a 70 percent to 75 percent success rate when women in their mid- to late 40s use donor eggs.
Grifo, who used donor eggs to get his 56-year-former patient pregnant, says he has a 55 pct to lx percentage success rate with donor eggs. He says his patient was due in mid-April, just the adult female hasn't contacted him to say whether she had the baby.
How much does it toll to get pregnant with donor eggs?
It costs $20,000 to $xxx,000 per try to become pregnant with donor eggs at the New York University Fertility Middle, where Grifo is the program director.
You can cut that price in half past using one of two strategies.
If you use frozen donor eggs instead of fresh, it's about $16,000 at Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta.
If you and another woman use the same egg donor, it'south besides about $16,000 at East Declension Fertility.
What will I take to go through medically to get pregnant with donor eggs?
First, you lot have to be screened, which includes blood tests and ultrasounds of your uterus to make certain you tin can carry a baby. And then you lot have to have a psychological evaluation to brand sure you're mentally prepared to have a baby to whom you're non genetically related.
Kort and other doctors say they ask women in their mid- to late 40s to accept an examination by an internist.
"The internist will be looking at hypertension, anemia, heart bug, pulmonary problems, diabetes and whatever other conditions that would go worse during pregnancy or could be brought on by pregnancy," Kort said.
Older parents may not exist as energetic. But nosotros older parents can be a lot more attentive and a lot smarter.
--Dr. Jamie Grifo, program manager of New York University Fertility Center
Kort says that in one case a woman is cleared to get pregnant, she takes hormones, estrogen and progesterone, for 4½ weeks to set up her uterus to receive the donor's fertilized egg. After the fertilized egg is implanted in her uterus, the the adult female continues taking the estrogen, which is a pill, for another eight weeks, and progesterone, a shot she takes at home, until 10 weeks into her pregnancy.
Is it dangerous to be pregnant at age 47?
"The scientific literature says women do quite well in pregnancy at this age," Grifo said. "But information technology is a little riskier. There'south a higher run a risk of developing loftier blood pressure, diabetes, and needing a C-department, all of which are manageable."
Will doctors help me get meaning no matter what my historic period, or is there a cutoff?
Here's where doctors differ.
Kort won't help a woman get significant after age 50.
"Women go into natural menopause around l," Kort explained. "If that's when nature cuts things off, that'due south a proficient enough standard for me."
Kreiner doesn't have an accented cutoff, on the other manus, instead making case-past-case decisions.
"There are increased health risks for the female parent and the fetus, and then we experience compelled to screen very carefully," he said.
He says his patient who gave birth last year at age 54 had a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
What well-nigh existence a parent late in life -- is that a good idea?
John Travolta volition be about 74 years quondam when his baby graduates from high school. Is that too old?
The respond is aye, if you listen to aroused e-mails Grifo receives from people he doesn't know but who manifestly accept heard about his work.
"I go these random e-mails, and they say, 'Who do y'all call back you are?' and 'why are you doing this?' " Grifo said. "They're actually caustic."
Grifo says some people worry that an older parent will die when the kid is still immature.
"But really, anybody tin can die at any age," he responded. "It'south moot."
Others are concerned that parents won't have enough energy in their belatedly 40s or 50s to raise a babe.
"Older parents may not be as energetic," said Grifo, who's 54 and has children ages 6 months and two years. "But we older parents can be a lot more attentive and a lot smarter. Nothing'due south all skillful or bad. There's a positive and a negative for everything."
Kreiner, as well 54, looks at it differently. He has personal concerns about someone choosing motherhood very late in life.
"To have the energy to be a new mother at my historic period, that's very tough," he said. "I personally only tin can't relate to the want to be a mother at my age."
But he adds that he doesn't allow his personal views arrive the manner of helping women get pregnant into their 50s as long as they're healthy enough to do so.
"I rule out my own feelings every bit existence irrelevant," he said.
CNN's Sabriya Rice and Jen Bixler contributed to this study.
Pregnant Again at 46 and I Dont Have Normal Symptoms
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/27/late.pregnancy.risks/index.html