Don’ t wait and live a life of regret, life has a mysterious way of working out.
pregnancy
There are many stereotypes about women over 40 and fertility. While it’ s true that conceiving naturally becomes more difficult with age, it’ s certainly not impossible. Claire Danes recently spoke about the“ funny shame” she felt after becoming pregnant naturally at 44, and Janet Jackson welcomed her son, Eissa Al Mana, at 50. Not so long ago, becoming a mum at 40 was considered unusual. Now, later-life pregnancies are increasingly common.
Don’ t wait and live a life of regret, life has a mysterious way of working out.
Beverley’ s path to motherhood at 42
For Beverley Houston, becoming a mother was never about finding“ the one” or following a traditional timeline.
“ I always wanted to be a mom,” she says.“ At 39, when I still hadn’ t met‘ the one’, I worried that I might have left it too late.”
She booked an assessment, and that appointment changed everything.“ My doctor asked if I’ d considered solo parenting. After meeting with him and seeing how straightforward the process could be, my mind was made up then and there.”
The journey wasn’ t easy.“ It took another two years, a fair amount of heartbreak, and a change of donors before I eventually fell pregnant via IUI( intrauterine insemination), and had my daughter at 42.”
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After multiple disappointments( including numerous IUI attempts, a failed IVF round, and one miscarriage), Beverley didn’ t believe the final IUI would succeed.“ I’ d actually been mentally preparing to try IVF the next month,” she recalls.“ Lo and behold, it worked. Forty weeks later, on my mum’ s birthday, my daughter was born.”
Her family was overwhelmingly supportive.“ My dad, who leans towards being conservative, said he’ d been waiting for me to reach this decision,” she laughs.“ Everyone else was on board.” Her mother even relocated:“ My mum moved from Joburg to Cape Town, so we spend a lot of time together.”
The biggest challenge for women over 40
You might have heard that after 40,“ the womb gets too old”. But according to Dr Lizle Oosthuizen, a fertility specialist at Cape Fertility, that’ s not quite right. The main challenge for women over 40 trying to get pregnant, she says, is egg quality.
“ As we get older, a higher proportion of eggs are chromosomally abnormal, which increases the risk of not conceiving, early miscarriage, or having very few usable embryos in an IVF cycle,” she explains.“ Egg quantity( ovarian reserve) also declines with age, so we often see fewer follicles and fewer eggs retrieved per cycle.”
And yes, age can bring extra hurdles.“ Fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, endometriosis, or metabolic issues( thyroid, insulin resistance, weight, blood pressure) can all influence implantation and pregnancy outcomes,” Dr Oosthuizen adds.“ But the single biggest limiting factor remains the age of the egg.”
Dr Oosthuizen says she uses ovarian reserve tests to guide the best options, not to tell a woman whether she is fertile or not.
“ AMH and AFC tests help predict how many eggs might grow in an IVF cycle. A low AMH means we should plan for fewer eggs per cycle and sometimes plan for more than one cycle to‘ build up’ embryos. But the ovary will only provide as many eggs as it is capable of growing. It doesn’ t help to compare your egg numbers to other women’ s.”
FSH can hint at reduced ovarian responsiveness, while very low AMH and AFC in older women don’ t exclude pregnancy, though the odds per attempt are lower.
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