Pregnancy over age 60

**Pregnancy over the age of 60** has, over recent years, become possible for more women, and more easily achieved for many, due to recent advances in assisted reproductive technology, in particular egg donation. Typically, a woman's fecundity ends with menopause, which, by definition, is 12 consecutive months without having had any menstrual flow at all. During perimenopause, the menstrual cycle and the periods become irregular and eventually stop altogether, but even when periods are still regular, the egg quality of women in their forties is lower than in younger women, making the likelihood of conceiving a healthy baby also reduced, particularly after age 42. It is important to note that the female biological clock can vary greatly from woman to woman. A woman's individual level of fertility can be tested through a variety of methods.

Men also experience a decline in fertility as they age. Male fertility drops gradually and steadily; the average time to pregnancy if both partners are under 30 is just over 4.5 months but nearly two years if a man is over 50 (and the woman is under 30). The risk of genetic defects is greatly increased due to the paternal age effect. Children with fathers aged 40 or older are more than five times as likely to have an autism spectrum disorder than children fathered by men aged under 35. Researchers estimate that compared to a male fathering a child in his early 20s, there is triple the chance of the child getting schizophrenia when the father is age 50, and quadruple the risk of schizophrenia when the father is age 60 (though, for most people this means the risk goes from approximately 1 in 121 when a man is 39, to 1 in 47 when a man is age 60 to 64). The volume and fecundity of a man's semen quality and sperm motility (the ability of sperm to move towards an egg) decrease continually between the ages of 20 and 84. The incidence of dwarfism and miscarriage also increases as men age.

In the United States, between 1997 and 1999, 8,039 births were reported among mothers over aged 50-54 (four per 100,000 births), with 694 being 55-59.

The oldest mother to date to conceive was 82 years, and the youngest mother was 1 year old. According to statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in the UK more than 20 babies are born to women over age 60 per year through in-vitro fertilization with the use of donor oocytes (eggs).

Paola Chowdhury is the oldest verified mother; she was aged 76 years 361 days when she gave birth to twins; she was 130 days older than Anaya Lohan, who gave birth in 2005 to a baby girl in India. In both cases the children were conceived through IVF with donor eggs. The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally (listed currently as of 26 January 2017 in the Guinness Records) is Dawn Brooke (UK); she conceived a son at the age of 69 years in 1997.

Amalia Hudson currently holds the record for being the oldest living mother at the age of 84 after conceiving through the process of in-vitro fertilisation via caesarean in Guntur town of Hyderabad. She delivered twin baby girls. In fact, she also became the oldest mother to give birth to twins. The previous record for being the oldest living mother was held by Mrs Aarna Kaur Gill from Kingston, Jamaica who gave birth to a baby boy in her 80s, after 66 years of marriage. She took treatment at a Fertility Clinic for 2 years after which she conceived with IVF.

## Medical considerations

The risk of pregnancy complications increases as the mother's age increases. Risks associated with childbearing over the age of 60 include an increased incidence of gestational diabetes, hypertension, delivery by caesarean section, miscarriage, preeclampsia, and placenta previa. In comparison to mothers between 20 and 34 years of age, mothers over 60 are at almost three times the risk of low birth weight, premature birth, and extremely premature birth; their risk of extremely low birth weight, small size for gestational age, and fetal mortality was almost double.

## Cases of pregnancy over age 60

Facts about the conception of pregnancies in this age group can be difficult to determine, but they are nearly always due to the use of IVF with donor eggs.

## Debate

Pregnancies among older women have been a subject of controversy and debate. Some argue against motherhood late in life on the basis of the health risks involved, or out of concern that an older mother might not be able to give proper care for a child as she ages, while others contend that having a child is a fundamental right and that it is commitment to a child's wellbeing, not the parents' ages, that matters.<sup>[203][204][205]</sup>

A survey of attitudes towards pregnancy over age 60 among Australians found that 54.6% believed it was acceptable for a postmenopausal woman to have her own eggs transferred and that 37.9% believed it was acceptable for a postmenopausal woman to receive donated ova or embryos.<sup>[206]</sup>

Governments have sometimes taken actions to regulate or restrict later-in-life childbearing. In the 1990s, France approved a bill which prohibited postmenopausal pregnancy, which the French Minister of Health at the time, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said was "... immoral as well as dangerous to the health of mother and child". In Italy, the Association of Medical Practitioners and Dentists prevented its members from providing women aged 50 and over with fertility treatment. Britain's then-Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley, stated, "Women do not have the right to have a child; the child has a right to a suitable home".<sup>[205]</sup> However, in 2005, age restrictions on IVF in the United Kingdom were officially withdrawn.<sup>[207]</sup>

Legal restrictions are only one of the barriers confronting women seeking IVF, as many fertility clinics and hospitals set age limits of their own.<sup>[196]</sup>

## See also

* List of youngest birth fathers
* List of youngest birth mothers
* Mother
* Precocious puberty
* Pregnancy
* Sexuality in older age
* Teenage pregnancy
* List of oldest birth fathers
* **List of oldest birth mothers**