Pregnancy over age 50 has, over recent years, become more possible for women, 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 typically dramatically lower than in younger women, making the likelihood
of conceiving a healthy baby also dramatically lower, particularly after age 42.
Men, in contrast, generally remain fertile throughout their lives, although the risk
of genetic defects is greatly increased due to the paternal age effect.
Other sources claim that men might experience a decline in fertility starting in their late
30s.
In the United States, between 1997 and 1999, 539 births were reported among mothers over
age 50, with 194 being over 55.
According to statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in the Britain,
more than 20 babies are born to women over age 50 per year through in-vitro fertilization
with the use of donor oocytes.
Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara is the oldest verified mother; she was aged 66 years 358
days when she gave birth to twins; she was 130 days older than Adriana Iliescu, who gave
birth in 2005 to a baby girl.
The children were conceived through IVF with donor eggs.
The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally is Dawn Brooke; she conceived a son at the
age of 59 years in 1997 while taking oestrogen.
Medical considerations The risk of pregnancy complications increases
as the mother's age increases.
Risks associated with childbearing over the age of 50 include an increased incidence of
gestational diabetes, hypertension, delivery by caesarean section, miscarriage, preeclampsia,
and placenta previa.
In comparison to mothers between 20 and 29 years of age, mothers over 50 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 50 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.
Although many claims, both present and historical, exist about pregnancies at very advanced ages,
most of these have not been verified.
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 or around to 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.
A survey of attitudes towards pregnancy over age 50 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 women to receive donated
ova or embryos.
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".
However, in 2005, age restrictions on IVF in the United Kingdom were officially withdrawn.
Legal restrictions are only one of the barriers confronting women seeking IVF, as many fertility
clinics and hospitals set age limits of their own.
See also Mother
Age and female fertility Pregnancy
Sexuality in older age Teenage pregnancy
List of youngest birth mothers References