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Fertility
And Age
By
Lisa Liddane
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These are
births that make entertainment headlines and magazine
covers.
These are wondrous first-time births to celebrities
older than 35.
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People magazine recently devoted
its cover story to stars that became first-time moms in
their late 30s and 40s. Geena Davis recently became a
mother at 46. Emma Thompson, at 40 and Madonna, at 37
became mothers. Last month, news reports revealed that
Elizabeth Hurley, 36, gave birth to a boy, while Sarah
Jessica Parker, also 36, was expecting her first baby.
Here's the cold splash of reality: Recently People story
was published, a study in the journal Human Reproduction
showed that women 35 or older had half the probability
of getting pregnant of women 27 or younger. The finding
underscores what reproductive specialists have been saying
all along: Fertility declines with age and can't be taken
for granted. Although giving birth to healthy babies is
possible for some women approaching midlife, infertile
women, doctors and fertility advocates are concerned that
the glamour of successful births to older celebrities
may be giving women a false sense of security about fertility.
They worry that glossy later-motherhood stories reinforce
a popular misconception: that postponing conceiving to
one's late 30s and 40s is easier, thanks to healthier
lifestyles and advances in reproductive technologies.
"We look great in our 40s, don't we?" asks Pamela
Madsen, executive director of the American Infertility
Association. "We are living longer. And yes, we have
better reproductive technologies to help infertile couples.
But technology has not been able to rewind the biological
clock." To make matters worse, what most women know
about fertility may be limited or flawed, doctors and
fertility advocates say.
An American Infertility Association survey of 12,382 women
showed that most don't know enough about fertility: 88
percent underestimated by five to 10 years the age at
which fertility begins declining; more than a quarter
underestimated the risk of infertility, believing it is
1 in 50, when it is actually 1 in 10. And this lack of
knowledge needs to change, Madsen says.
One of the most important things women need to understand:
Their "eggs are like milk, they have a freshness
date."
Indeed, the facts of fertility haven't changed, even if
reproductive technologies have, says Dr. Robert Rebar,
associate executive director of the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine.
The facts include:
z Women
are born with a finite set of eggs.
z Those
eggs age as women become older.
z Studies
show that risks of eggs with defects or problems increase
with age.
zStudies
show that risks of infertility, pregnancy problems, miscarriage
and birth defects rise at age 35 and increase significantly
after age 40.
z Weight
and certain lifestyle habits such as tobacco, alcohol
and drug use can reduce fertility.
z And the
viability of those eggs varies from one woman to the next.
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“We do not
know why some women's eggs age earlier than others', or
why some women become infertile and others don't,”
Rebar says. There will always be women in their late 30s
and 40s who will breeze through pregnancy. What's lost
in sound bites about older first-time moms is the struggle
of some women to become pregnant, the miscarriages, the
fertility treatments or the search for donor eggs.
In fairness, People magazine included a story about the
complexities of trying to become pregnant after 40. Celebrity
stories may not always tell us the whole story, says Penny
Joss Fletcher, a marriage and family therapist and co-president
of RESOLVE of Orange County, a support group and information
network for those with fertility issues. "When I
hear these stories, I wonder if celebrities have used
fertility treatments," Fletcher said. "Not all
women are disclosing that. There's nothing wrong with
using donor eggs. It would be great if they were forthcoming
about that. But I totally understand the privacy issue
-- it's about the child's life, the need for privacy for
the family. "I do think stories of older celebrity
moms give some hope to women to start their families later
in life. When you're starting a family in your late 30s,
the statistics are much less optimistic and that can be
stressful." |
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Sex
And The City
The U.S. government reports that the rate of gonorrhea
infections nationwide finally leveled off in 2000. That’s
the good news. The bad? It shot up more than 20% in
cities like Buffalo, New York; Jacksonville, Florida;
Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; and Kansas City, Missouri.
The best way to prevent the sexually transmitted disease
is abstinence or condoms. But don’t count on help
from the spermicide nonoxynol-9. Contrary to expectations,
a separate report shows that nonoxynol-9 does nothing
to kill off gonorrhea becteria.
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