Recent Study Of Older Mothers’ Possible Complications

14.02.2012

Women over 50 who get pregnant using donor eggs do not appear to face greater risks of complications than younger women using the same assisted baby making technologies, according to one of the largest studies to date of older mothers.
A team led by a pioneer in the donor eggs pregnancies in post-menopausal women found that, compared with women 42 and younger, women in their 50s undergoing in vitro fertilization with donated eggs had similar rates of gestational hypertension, diabetes, Caesarean delivery and premature birth.
For both groups, the outcomes in their babies were "excellent and similar," Dr. Mark Sauer, professor and chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and his co-authors report in the American Journal of Perinatology.
"The demographics of pregnant women in the United States are changing," the authors write — a phenomenon that's true for this country, too.
In Canada, 11 per cent of first births now occur in women aged 35 and older, up from five per cent in 1987.
Births to women 50 and older are also increasing through the availability of IVF with eggs donated from younger women.
But some clinics have been reluctant to accept older women. "The argument has been, 'Oh, you're menopausal, you can't possible have a child without all this horrible risk," said Dr. Roger Pierson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Saskatchewan and a past president of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.
"In this very highly selected population, we know that's not true now," he said.
"What this study is saying is that, with the age of the (donor) eggs being constant, it doesn't matter whether you put them in a pre-menopausal woman or a post-menopausal woman."
For the new study, researchers studied 101 consecutive women aged 50 to 59 who became pregnant via IVF and eggs donated from younger women at the University Centre for Reproductive Care. Their pregnancy results were compared with those of younger egg-donor recipients.
Overall, the team found that the older women were at higher risk for complications, notably C-sections and hypertensive disorders, than younger women who spontaneously conceive on their own. But at similar rates to those seen in younger women also using donated eggs.
"After almost 30 years of doing this kind of work, I'm delighted to say that it looks very sane and very safe under well-prescribed conditions," Sauer said. "The risks are reasonable and the outcomes are good."

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