More fun with IVF - 60 year old gives birth to twins

[Iron_chet]

I am of 2 minds on this one. I can appreciate the desire to have your own family but at what point does the doctor say no?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/02/04/cgy-twins-60yearold-mother.html?ref=rss

 

[outofplace]

I'm not sure exactly where that line is, but this situation definitely crossed it. Even women in their 30s start to face higher chances of complications that could compromise the health of the mother or her baby/babies.

In this case, according to the story, the new mother now has high blood pressure and diabetes. She also had a pregnancy complication known as placenta previa (it is explained in the story), which can be fatal for the mother in extreme cases. To be fair, I'm not sure if the risk of that particular condition goes up with age, but they had to deliver the babies prematurely by c-section because she was hemorraging so badly.

There was a much higher risk than normal of these babies losing their mother in child birth. These children are going to have to live with their mother in declining health at a very young age. To me, this woman and her husband were irresponsible and showed very little concern for the quality of life of their unborn children before taking extreme measures to have them.

Maybe this is easy for me to say because I am already a parent, but no way in hell would my wife and I go to such lengths to have a child uniless we were absolutely positive I could provide the home that child would need. You have to start loving your children enough to put them first from the moment you decide to have them.

 

[Double Down]

On the bright side, in a few years everyone involved could potentially be a big fan of applesauce, crushed peas and diapers.

 

[Lugnuts]

I'm not sure exactly where that line is, but this situation definitely crossed it. Even women in their 30s start to face higher chances of complications that could compromise the health of the mother or her baby/babies.

I agree with you about the 60-year-old, but I think it's perfectly safe for women in their 30s to give birth.

I'm not sure uterine problems are any more common for women in their 30s than they are for women in their 20s. Same goes for high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.

You might be thinking of egg issues, such as chromosome disorders, which really become a concern after 40. Sarah Palin would be an example of that.

But what does give a pregnancy a higher risk of complications is multiples.

 

[outofplace]

I'm not sure exactly where that line is, but this situation definitely crossed it. Even women in their 30s start to face higher chances of complications that could compromise the health of the mother or her baby/babies.

I agree with you about the 60-year-old, but I think it's perfectly safe for women in their 30s to give birth.

I'm not sure uterine problems like placenta previa are any more common for women in their 30s than they are for women in their 20s. Same goes for high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.

You might be thinking of egg issues, such as chromosome disorders, which really become a concern after 40. Sarah Palin would be an example of that.

I probably wasn't clear there. I agree that it is safe for women in their 30s. My wife was in her 30s when our daughter was born. I just know that is when some risk factors start to go up. I was using that to illustrate the way many risk factors become more of an issue as women age.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

There are few acts more selfish or self centered than having a child in your 60s or even late 50s.

I don't care how much life expectancy continues to grow, odds are you will leave that child parentless by their young adulthood. And their childhood days likely won't be filled with very active parents.

 

[Lugnuts]

I probably wasn't clear there. I agree that it is safe for women in their 30s. My wife was in her 30s when our daughter was born. I just know that is when some risk factors start to go up. I was using that to illustrate the way many risk factors become more of an issue as women age.

Yeah, I see.

I do think the main risk factor everybody thinks about is the egg/chomosome thing, though. That seems to be the big one.

I think for a 35-year-old woman, the chances that her baby would have a chromosome disorder like Down Syndrome is maybe 1 in 150 or something. For a woman over 40, it's something like 1 in 5.

The testing for that has really improved over the past 5 years. These days you get a simple blood draw at 12 weeks, and they can determine if your baby's risk of a chromosome disorder is high or not. If it's high, you can go for further testing like amniocentisis.

But because just about every fertility clinic out there offers donor eggs to women under 45, I'm not sure uterine or other pregnancy complications are seen as much of a risk for women under 45.