When you get pregnant after the age of 35, experts call it a “late maternal age” pregnancy. However, you are still able to get pregnant and give birth to a healthy baby in your 40s. And since the 1990s, the birth rate in people aged 40-44 has increased.
Therefore, preparing for a baby at the age of 40, it is important to consider the risks and benefits. Moreover, at the age of 40, if healthy, you only have a 5 percent chance of getting pregnant per menstrual cycle.
Additionally, at the same age, the chances of miscarriage increase with age. A typical 40-year-old has about a 40 percent chance of losing a pregnancy.
That’s compared to less than 15 percent for someone in their 20s. Once you’re over 45, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says conceiving naturally is “impossible for most women.”
This means that as a woman gets older, she is also at higher risk of experiencing disorders that affect her fertility.
1. Causes of decreased fertility
As you get older, your egg cells will also increase. When entering puberty, women may only have around 300,000 eggs. At age 37, the number of eggs is only 25,000 or 2.5 percent of the initial number. This is important because the fewer eggs in the ovaries, the lower the chance of a woman getting pregnant.
Even if they do conceive, older eggs tend to have abnormal chromosomes, which can increase the chance of miscarriage. Also, if you are 25-40 years old, you are more likely to have problems like endometriosis and uterine fibroids that make it harder to conceive.
2. Risk of pregnancy at age 40 and above
In people who are able to conceive, the peak reproductive period occurs between the late teens and the late 20s. Fertility begins to decline around the age of 30. This process continues more rapidly from the mid-30s.
After the age of 45, a woman’s fertility is usually so low that natural pregnancy is impossible for most people.
However, some people may still have a “menopause baby.” This refers to pregnancy and childbirth that occur during perimenopause, the transition to menopause. While this is unpredictable, it can still affect your chances of getting pregnant at 40.
Risks or complications in pregnancy at 40 are more common. Older women tend to have more health problems than younger women, such as high blood pressure.
This condition, according to WebMD, can increase the risk of preeclampsia, which is a condition where pregnant women suddenly experience high blood pressure and signs of organ damage during pregnancy. If left untreated, this condition can cause serious or fatal problems for pregnant women and babies.
Not only that, but pregnancy at an advanced age can also affect the health of the baby in the womb, even if you do not have any health conditions.
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