Planning your pregnancy at the age of 40? Know the tips and tricks

In today’s time women are more career oriented and looks towards financial stability first in their life. And not only women, men are also in no hurry to start a family any time soon; career has taken the front seat; hence given the rise to DINK couples(double income and no kids). As a result more women are getting married around 30-35 years of age or even later. Due to this, the mean age at first pregnancy is also slowly rising, with many women approaching Fertility Clinics for the first time at the age of 40 years for help in conceiving.

Delaying pregnancy sometimes leads to miscarriage or even infertility. With increasing age in females, the ovarian reserve or the number of eggs that a lady has, reduces drastically translating into decreased chances of natural pregnancy. Moreover there is a rapid decline in quality of eggs too due to which the chances of miscarriages also may increase. Research has shown that a 40 year old female seeking fertility has only 25 % chance of pregnancy with own eggs and it decreases to 1.6% at age of 44. If she conceives, the risk of miscarriage is around 25% at 40 years and around 50% at 44 years.

At the age of 40 and above, the incidence of medical problems like Diabetes Mellitus, High Blood Pressure is more. These may get aggravated during the course of a pregnancy. If a lady gets pregnant with her own eggs at the age of 40, the chances of having genetic problems is more. This risk can be reduced by opting for donor eggs as these eggs are of a much younger lady. 

What are the Tips and Tricks to get pregnant at the age of 40?

1. Do not wait too long for natural conception: Several studies have shown that the chances of conceiving naturally is as low as 5-10 %the age of 40. This can be attributed to the diminished quality of eggs at this age.

2.Approach a Fertility Consultant for guidance: You should visit a good fertility consultant to understand the challenges of child bearing at this age, get necessary investigations done and to choose the right modality of treatment according to the reports of your tests.

3. Go for Assisted Reproductive Technology: 

• IUI– Intrauterine Insemination is a process where processed sperms are directly injected into the uterus around the time of ovulation. However, it has a success rate of less than 10% in this age group. So, one should never be over-dependent on this modality of treatment to get a positive result.

• IVF- In Vitro Fertilisation is a process wherein the eggs in the ovaries of a female are collected after giving a course of injections and then fertilised with sperms in the laboratory, followed by culturing in advanced incubators for embryo formation. The embryos are then transferred back into the uterus of the lady.With your own eggs, you have a 20-25% chance of conceiving using IVF at this age. However with each passing year the success rate dips drastically.

• Donor egg IVF- IVF with a lady’s own eggs may not be possible in all cases due to a very poor ovarian reserve or due to the lady being on the verge of menopause with hardly any eggs left in her ovaries. These ladies can opt for a Donor egg IVF cycle where eggs are borrowed from a healthy egg donor and fertilised with sperms in an IVF lab followed by embryo formation and transfer back into the uterus of the infertile lady. Donor egg IVF greatly enhances your chances of getting pregnant at 40 with almost double the chances of success as compared to using your own eggs.

4. Plan in advance: If you realise at any point earlier in life that you may have to delay child bearing till the age of 40- then it is a good decision to freeze your eggs. The advantage of this process is that you have a good chance of getting pregnant with your own eggs using IVF bat 40 also as the age of the eggs at the time of freezing was less than 40 years.

5. Keep a check on your menstruation cycle: Skipping of period dates and delays are common sight after 35 so do keep a check on your menstruation cycle and also on the days that you ovulate. This would ensure the right day you could conceive and it’s how prospective parents can probably decrease the time taken to get pregnant. 

6. Give up unhealthy lifestyle choices: Alcohol and tobacco consumption must be given up for both the prospective parents. These can have as severe effect on the baby’s health. In addition to this, give up on fried foods as well and shed maximum body fat. 

7. Too much stress is bad for your physical and mental health: Stress suppresses ovulation in women; reduce sperm count in men and lower libido in both. So, give your body a physical and mental rest. Listen to some soothing sounds like sea movement, waterfalls and rain forest noises, can also eliminate stress. 

We at Mother’s Lap IVF Centre provides on to one counseling sessions along with helps you to overcome your fertility issues simply by practicing meditation and breathing techniques.We understand the value of getting pregnant and accomplish a delivery without any serious health issue. For that reason, we cater you the most appropriate guidance and direction to enhance your fertility condition to optimum level.