The pace of modernization has pushed numbers of women to choose to become mothers at a later stage of life. Studies show that there is an increase in 33% of women giving birth over the age of 40, in the last five years.
Biologically, fertilization in women decreases over time, particularly from the age of 35 onwards. As women are born with a set number of eggs whose possibilities of conceiving after age of 35 tend to deteriorate.
There are lots of factors that lead to infertility in females. You may find doctors addressing a common problem that could be the result of physical or emotional trauma. Age is one of the significant factors and plays a crucial role in a woman’s life when they conceiving.
With advancing age, many physiological changes take place in a woman’s body that can hinder the natural conceiving process or can lead to miscarriages. In the woman under the age of 35 years, chances of successful IVF pregnancy are very high while it is low for the woman above 40 years old. With the advanced age, the likelihood of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome also increases.
Most embryos with an incorrect number of chromosomes fail to implant or miscarry during the first trimester of pregnancy.
As per the study by IGENOMIX, in women over 38 years old, 79% of embryos have chromosomal abnormalities. These abnormalities can be numeric, with the most common example being that of Down syndrome (three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two), along with Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes. The risk of this age group suffering with such abnormalities is 30%. In these cases, the parents’ chromosomes do not have abnormalities.
Before you opt for IVF process you should know about the Fertility Clock i.e. when you are of age 20 the egg quality is 90% normal and 10% abnormal but as soon as a women attains the age of 40 the egg quality goes to 10% being normal and 90% abnormal.
To avoid pregnancy with chromosomal abnormalities in the woman with advanced maternal age, we recommend that Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) be performed. PGS is an early genetic diagnosis of the embryo before its transfer to the uterus, and therefore prior to the establishment of pregnancy. PGS allows only embryos that are free of abnormalities to be transferred.
