Over the past decade, the number of women choosing to have children after 40 has doubled. Increasingly, they seek to first get an education, build a career, open a business, and only then to experience the joys of motherhood.
Boris Tsivyan, one of the leading gynecological surgeons of St. Petersburg, told about the pros and cons of late labor.
Live to be 100 years old
– The life expectancy of people in developed countries updates the historical records. According to the latest data from the European Congress of gynecologists in Brussels, half of the current generation of newborn girls in Western countries will live to be 100 years old. Of course, this will have an impact on the time of creation of families and the appearance of children in them. Already we see that more and more women and men first want to take place financially, create a stable marriage, and then have children. And stability usually reach to 35-40 years. In addition, the female body has changed, and if at the beginning of the last century the menstrual cycle in women ended in 37-40 years, today in 50-55. And they feel more active, healthy, young.
Another positive aspect of late motherhood is a responsible approach, the ability to make more informed decisions. Mothers over 40 are more likely to breastfeed and have healthier and healthier eating habits. In addition, they are rarely constrained financially, more focused on children, their upbringing, education. And, having a developed character, are more patient. But, unfortunately, with the increase in life expectancy, directly reproductive functions of women do not increase. The numbers speak for themselves. So, in 40 years, the probability of becoming pregnant within a year is 40-50%, and by 43 years – 1-2% (according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention). This is due to a sharp reduction in the number of eggs. At puberty, a girl's stock is 300,000 to 500,000, falling inexorably by 13,000 a year. And by the age of 37, the supply of eggs is estimated at about 25,000. As a result, the chances of getting pregnant after 43 years without reproductive technology is akin to buying a winning lottery ticket. But the risks of having children with genetic disorders, on the contrary, increase. First of all, it is down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia. And this applies directly to the fathers themselves. Yes, they are likely to conceive a child in 60 and 70 years, but the quality of their biological material with age falls.
The risk of having a child with down syndrome in 40 years is 1 to 100, whereas in 45-1 to 30, and, for example, in 20 years – 1 to 1350. Fortunately, most of the genetic abnormalities today can be diagnosed during pregnancy. As for the bearing of the fetus, the forty-year-olds often state miscarriages, premature birth and, accordingly, premature babies.
All world technologies are available
However, with all the disadvantages of late childbirth are becoming more popular, and medicine is developing in this direction is very dynamic. IVF and assisted reproductive technologies allow to give birth to a healthy child after 40 years. Thus, the use of a young donor egg at this age increases the chances of pregnancy up to 50%, and the risk of miscarriage and genetic abnormalities will determine the statistics of the age group from which the egg is taken – for example, in 20 or 30 years.
Freezing your own fertilized eggs is also a reasonable solution. It is difficult to say whether this should become a mass phenomenon, but for people, for whatever reasons, wishing to postpone pregnancy to a later date, it is a good investment in the future family. Often during gynecological surgery requires removal of the ovaries, and now we have the opportunity to immediately make a fence eggs with subsequent freezing, giving the woman a chance to then become a mother.
Today in Russia there are all the world's technologies that allow timely diagnosis and treatment of diseases that can prevent pregnancy. This uterine fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian tumors, hormonal disorders, and so on. Surgical operations, with the use of new minimally invasive technologies, are becoming more sparing, reducing the time the patient stays in the hospital.
There can be no question of Russia lagging behind the West. For example,
today, Moscow is equipped with MRI machines better than any Western power. In addition, the Russian medical market is more open to new technologies than the European one – there are no delays associated with their legalization.
In today's world, you can not stand still, and the technologies used today in the field of gynecology, amazing.
The creation of artificial ovaries and uterus, as well as transplantation of these organs – has become a reality. In September 2012, for the first time, scientists performed a uterine transplant from a related donor. Recently, the famous Swedish surgeon mats Brannstrom has already reported on five children born to women with donor uteruses.
These technologies will be used by women who are unable to conceive or bear a fetus – for health reasons or because of age. And the chances of becoming mothers in women after 40 years will increase significantly.