08.02.2019
12 min readBecoming a mother after forty is possible, but the chances are much higher if donor eggs are used during IVF.
If you’re thinking about becoming a mother at forty, the legislative boundaries and natural conditions that you might suffer from can hinder the likelihood of having a successful, safe pregnancy. This can be extremely disheartening.
Getting pregnant at the age of thirty-five is 42% more difficult than it is for women aged between twenty and twenty-four. Beginning at thirty-seven, a woman’s ability to conceive drops by 9% annually. Thus, the chances of getting pregnant naturally after 40 are dramatically low. After 45, over 95% of the eggs remaining in the ovaries contain genetic abnormalities.
The question is: what is there to do, if the desire to become a mother is unbearable? Is it possible to prolong the fertility period?
Those who did not use the vitrification procedure – freezing their genetic material, in their youth, face a problem of becoming a mother as age increases.
The Truth About IVF After 40
We understand that there are a lot of other clinics who will say anything to satisfy potential IVF clients, but we’ve decided to voice the truth.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, statistics can be a lie, especially if we do not like them. And that is no different from the conversation regarding IVF success.
The facts are that the success rate of IVF on women at thirty years old is 48%. This drops to 22% at forty, to 12% at forty-three, down to 7% at forty-five, and is only at 4% at the age of forty-seven.
And before moving on, we need to discuss some more realities of the procedure.
As a result of the low effectiveness of IVF procedures at a mature age, many countries, including Sweden, impose an IVF age limit on infertility treatment. This means, you will have to be treated for infertility at your own expense.
IVF in Riga, at AVA Clinic
The good thing is that at AVA clinic in Riga, we are ready to try to help you become a mother up to age fifty.
IVF treatment in Latvia is a viable alternative to IVF treatment in Sweden because the legislations are designed to encourage IVF success.
According to the law, donation of eggs and sperm in Latvia is anonymous. That is, the donor has no opportunity to find out who will get his/her reproductive material, and his/her personal data is not available to you. The donor base of AVA Clinic is the most extensive in terms of the number of men and women with the Scandinavian phenotype.
Latvian legislation also does not prohibit the treatment of infertility for both single mothers and same sex couples.
But finally, let us turn to the ways IVF treatment in Latvia can increase your chances of becoming a mother after forty, and specifically how clinic specialists can increase them.
Once you’ve contacted Ava Clinic, and tests show that you still have a good supply of eggs, IVF treatment will be accompanied by preimplantation genetic screening or preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGS or PGT-A), which covers the following:
- Selection and transfer into the uterus of embryos that do not have chromosomal pathologies;
- Reducing the risk of having a child with certain genetic defects;
- Reducing the risk of miscarriage by half;
- Eliminating the risks with multiple births;
- Increasing the chances of successful embryo transfer by 10%;
- Increase the chances of safe delivery by 15-20%.
Keep in mind that infertility treatment only comes after a consultation with a doctor, an ultrasound scan and a blood test for an anti-Muller hormone (AMH – antimuller hormone), which will show a reserve of eggs in your ovaries.
But what if your eggs are no longer healthy, or contain genetic abnormalities?
Egg Donation Over Age 40
If the supply of eggs is poor, or there is a long and, unfortunately, unsuccessful treatment history, it is still possible to become a mother.
In this case, IVF success is usually dependent on donor eggs. At Ava Clinic, in the cases that we work with donor cells (egg donation), we manage to help 65% of patients.
Even with these success rates, the prices at AVA Clinic are modest in comparison to those in Sweden, even when taking into account the transfer charges.
It is important to remember that when treating individuals up to 50 years old, the method of treatment must be considered on an individual basis. Many factors, including history; number of attempts; current state of health, need to be considered when making a decision.
But, as a rule, Ava Clinic will recommend using IVF by donor egg to treat infertility for women over 43 years old.
Although IVF success after forty depends on many conditions, at AVA Clinic in Latvia, you have every opportunity to have a successful course of treatment – and one that is tailored to your requirements.
Never give up – this is our advice.