Good Chance of Pregnancy Over Age 50 Found : Medicine: Eight of 14 post-menopausal women became pregnant in USC study.
Pushing the frontiers of pregnancy, researchers at USC have found that women older than 50 who are past menopause stand a good chance of giving birth to healthy babies with the help of sophisticated embryo donation techniques.
In a study published in this week’s issue of the British journal the Lancet, the USC researchers report that of 14 post-menopausal women between 50 and 55, eight became pregnant. Four have already delivered babies, three are due to give birth in the spring and one miscarried.
The USC study, although small, offers the largest scientific sample of women over 50 who are attempting to bear children through the use of an in-vitro fertilization technique using eggs donated by a younger woman and fertilized outside the womb. The technique was pioneered at USC by Dr. Mark Sauer, who authored the Lancet article.
The study expands on research that Sauer conducted involving women in their 30s and 40s. Its findings are significant because they show that women over 50 who are past menopause have about the same rate of success--38%--as the younger women, most of whom went through menopause prematurely.
To achieve the eight pregnancies, the USC team implanted the women with 21 eggs collected from donors ages 28 to 31. The women also received a regimen of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which prime the uterine lining to help create an environment more conducive to pregnancy.
“We have once again extended the age for successful implantation and pregnancy well beyond the norm,” said Sauer, adding that he does not plan to try the technique with women in their 60s. “I think we’re pushing the limit by doing it with women in their middle 50s. I do worry about longevity. . . . I don’t want to have a bunch of orphaned children here.”
Indeed, the USC research is bound to generate ethical and social questions about the wisdom of encouraging motherhood at advanced ages.
One expert in reproductive medicine, Dr. Machelle Seibel of Harvard University’s medical school, said his clinic turns down women over 46, based on statistics showing that older people have a decreased likelihood of seeing their offspring turn 18.
“My concern,” Seibel said, “is that (doctors) will use wisdom and not try to allow people who are too old to come through. Obviously, if you say 50, then why not 52? If you say 52, then why not 55? Finally, you end up with, potentially, women beyond their 50s, and at some point I think it is important to recognize that it is not a wise decision.”
Experts in medical ethics, meanwhile, caution that in the race to break pregnancy barriers, researchers might ignore the risks to both mother and child.
“I think the race to see who can produce a child with the oldest uterus is not one that we ought to be very proud of,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Minnesota. “It is useful to help women with fertility problems, but I think you are really pushing at the margin of the public good.”
