Chances of Getting Pregnant After 50 – What Women Need to Know

30 Dec Chances of Getting Pregnant After 50 – What Women Need to Know

Chances of getting pregnant at 50 naturally are rare but not completely impossible.

In fact, because of many cases of surprise pregnancy at 50, the topic of discussion is still marked as controversial and debatable.

Yet, if we consider science, the chances of natural pregnancy lie as low as 3-4% because of various factors.

These factors could either be the biological reproductive cycle, underlying diseases, and even the risk of complications.

Throwing more light on whether you have a chance of getting pregnant naturally at and after 50 or if the planning would be risky, is the following section.

Can a Woman Get Pregnant After 50?

With the recent advances in science and tech, new and successful ways of assisted reproductive technologies have been discovered.

These technologies can help you with a successful pregnancy even after your 50s.

But as far as natural pregnancies are concerned, science doesn’t approve of them because of the physiological system of reproduction among women.

The most common factors leading to lower chances of pregnancy after 50 are:

1. Menopause
2. Quality of Eggs
3. Underlying diseases
4. Complications and risks

However, each of these factors has a different impact on women’s fertility, and sometimes pregnancies might occur even after these factors prevail.

Why Women Can’t Get Pregnant after 50 Naturally?

Unlike men, women have a reproductive system with ovaries that produce 1 to 2 million eggs at the time of birth.

Post birth, no eggs are produced, and hence, a woman has only 1 to 2 million eggs for her entire life.

However, as a woman grows physiologically, the eggs go on reducing, and by the time she gets her first period, it’s already down to 300,000 eggs.

Making things more complicated, out of all these 300,000 eggs, only a few are healthy and capable of fertilizing into a zygote or a baby.

With every period, you go on losing eggs, while the number of good quality eggs is still limited.

This already makes pregnancy a little complicated and problematic post-50!

Since now you are aware of the natural process of ovulation and fertility among women, you might have a better understanding of why women usually can’t get pregnant after 50. Following is an explanation of some of the causes:

#1. Menopause – No Fertilization

Menopause or absence of a menstrual cycle for more than 12 years is characterized by a fall in:

• Number of eggs
• Hormones facilitating pregnancy

It’s a completely natural process wherein the number of eggs goes on decreasing with every ovulation until fewer eggs remain for release.

Hence, until the woman has her ovaries releasing quality eggs, there are chances of pregnancy.

But once the ovulation ceases, women cannot get pregnant with the same natural process.

The American Reproductive Medicine Association suggests that a fall in pregnancy chances generally kicks in 5 – 10 years before menopause.

But that varies from person to person, and hence we only consider that menopause draws the full stop to natural pregnancy, in general.

Other than the fall in the number of eggs, the quality of eggs can affect the chances of getting pregnant at 54 or above 50 to be precise.

#2. Lower Quality of Eggs – Higher Rate of Miscarriages

In some cases, women might conceive after 50 years, but then most such pregnancies end in miscarriages. A major reason behind this is the increased rate of chromosomal abnormalities in their eggs after 50.

In general, there are two types of chromosomal abnormalities that affect pregnancy:

1. Numerical Changes – In this case, there are abnormal numbers of chromosomes present in an egg, often called aneuploidy. It could either be characterized by the loss of a chromosome or the presence of an extra chromosome. 
2. Structural Abnormalities – It is characterized by problems in the structure of the chromosome like translocation or deletion of a part of the chromosome.

According to research, these abnormalities are more commonly seen in advanced ages because of the meiotic spindle of the eggs being affected.

Yet, we aren’t clear as to why women after 50 face such an issue with the quality of eggs.

Moreover, unlike menopause, the abnormal quality of eggs in women could also affect the success rate of artificial pregnancy techniques, and hence this is a matter of serious concern.

Other than these two physiological changes in the women’s bodies, there could also be underlying diseases that make pregnancy after 50 difficult.

#3. Underlying Diseases Pave the Way for Too Many Complications

Women are often diagnosed with diseases that appear like early menopause and affect pregnancy:

1. Premature ovarian failure – It is mainly diagnosed at 27 years of age but can also go unnoticed till the 40s.

Since its symptoms are commonly associated with vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and absence of periods, it’s often confused with early menopause. But the condition has a similar effect to infertility.

2. Polycystic ovarian syndrome – It is a hormonal disorder that can affect any age group and can go on to disrupt your regular cycles and make pregnancy difficult.

Since even older age groups experience serious symptoms of the disease, it could be a possible threat to your plans of getting naturally pregnant at 50.

3. Adenomyosis – It is the growth of endometrial tissue into the muscles of the uterus, blocking the area required for the sperm to travel or for the embryo’s implantation.

It can affect all age groups from younger to older, making a successful natural pregnancy difficult, depending on the severity.

Other than the factors that make it difficult to get pregnant, even if pregnancy occurs, women might have to undergo several complications which can be fatal for the kid as well as the mother.

Hence, in most cases, clinical doctors advise going for assistive reproductive technologies instead of natural pregnancy to avoid such complications.

Getting Pregnant At Or After 50 – Help is Available with Clinical Procedures

While the answer to can a 50-year-old woman get pregnant naturally still depends on various factors, there do exist clinical procedures that can help you get pregnant.

These procedures depend on the underlying problem responsible for causing interference with pregnancy and are known as assisted reproductive technology.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) for Women Over 50

ART is a medical procedure that involves influencing eggs, sperm, or gametes for a successful pregnancy.

It involves different surgical options, depending on the aim of opting for ART. Since here we are addressing infertility, ART for women above 50 commonly involves:

#1. In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

IVF is a complicated yet effective procedure of ART. It involves a combination of medicines and surgical procedures for maturing eggs, making them ready for fertilization.

The treatment broadly covers the following steps:

1. The first step involves suppressing the functions of ovaries using medications to prevent natural ovulation.
2. Fertility injections are prescribed to women who take them daily to help the ovaries produce mature eggs.
3. Once the eggs are ready, a doctor removes the eggs and collects them for the further process of fertilization in the labs.

On the off chance, the woman is not able to produce eggs for fertilization, a donor is selected for the procedure. Further, her eggs are collected and fertilized with sperm in a dish.

Within about 5 days, fertilization results in embryo formation which is placed into the uterus of the patient.

Once the embryo attaches itself to the lining of the uterus, the pregnancy succeeds.

Often this is followed by daily shots of progesterone for 8 to 10 weeks, enhancing the survival of the embryo in the uterus.

However, it’s not always successful in the first go, and you might have to take more than one cycle of IVF.

Sometimes, the procedure might also result in several complications:

• More than one embryo implantation resulting in multiple pregnancies
• Since the process involves fertility drugs, it might show some side effects.
• In rare cases, the embryo might settle outside the womb.

Other than these complications, IVF is expensive and requires many examinations.

Despite this, IVF remains the number one choice for assisted reproductive technologies out of the other choices.

#2. Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer

Gamete intrafallopian transfer is another popular choice among women with healthy fallopian tubes.

Here both collected eggs and sperm are transferred in the fallopian tubes for fertilization inside the woman’s body.

Since medications are given to women for a healthy formation of the uterus lining that supports fertilization and further processes, the success rate is pretty high.

Other than the above two discussed options, sometimes people also prefer the frozen embryo transfer if there isn’t any genetic specificity.

#3. Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET)

The procedure involves using the previously in-vitro fertilized embryos, thawing them, and then inserting them into the uterus for implantation.

Since it is as safe as fresh embryo transfer, it’s commonly prevalent in the U.S.

However, some reports suggest that there could be a higher risk of preterm birth with FET.

In spite of the assisted reproductive technologies ready to help women get pregnant in their 50s, it’s not always safe for everyone.

Women should be perfectly healthy and fit to be able to get pregnant at 50, as not being fit could cause several complications.

These complications can include early termination of pregnancies, failure of the procedure, and even miscarriages.

Hence, women should be well prepared both physically and mentally to get pregnant after 50.

How to Prepare for Pregnancy At Or After 50?

For a successful pregnancy in your 50s, a woman must take care of her health and lifestyle to have a system that supports the pressure of bearing a baby.

Here are some ways through which you can prepare yourself to tackle the pressure of pregnancy:

#1. Healthy Diet – At 50, your body requires many vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients that keep you strong and healthy throughout the pregnancy. You can even consult your gynecologist for a diet that lets you go through the trimesters without complications.

#2. Supplements – Your diet may require many supplements, with the most important one being folic acid for pregnancy. Since diet fails to meet the daily requirement of folic acid in pregnancy, adding a supplement to your daily routine is helpful.

#3. Exercises – The body must be physically active and strong enough to carry the baby. Indulging in regular exercising trains your body and increases the range of motion of your muscles for a healthy pregnancy.

#4. Regular medical checkups – Medical examinations are important before taking up any of the surgical procedures of pregnancy to rule out any existing diseases that can complicate pregnancies in the future.

#5. Consult a gynecologist – Before deciding which assistive reproductive procedures to go for, consult a gynecologist. This will give you a better picture of what options you hold, and if these options are safe enough for you to try.

Having said all this, getting pregnant after 50 is still rare. But if you are physically and mentally fit, you can give it a try and get in touch with a doctor to assess your options.

Conclusion

Can a woman get pregnant at the age of 50? The answer is yes, with so many assistive reproductive technologies available these days.

However, the answer is slightly on the negative side if we talk about natural pregnancy at this age because of many factors including:

1. Menopause causes a decline in the pregnancy hormones, affecting estrogen and progesterone.

RELATED: Symptoms of Low Estrogen Levels in Females

2. The reduced quality of eggs with age

3. And sometimes there are often underlying complications that make it difficult for women to get pregnant at this age.

But again it’s not entirely impossible and many women have conceived and successfully delivered babies despite being older 50s.

So there isn’t any limit to possibilities, but science finds it less common and advises women to opt for ART in such scenarios.