Can I Be Pregnant At 48 Years Old

Getting Pregnant When You’re Older

Can you still get pregnant at 46 years old?

While it may be more difficult, you can still get pregnant when you’re older. Fertility depends on your ovarian function and your overall health. If you’re ovulating regularly and have good eggs, you’ll probably get pregnant within a year through sex alone. You can visit your doctor early in the process to test your ovarian function and find out if your odds of conceiving naturally are good.

If they are, you can try the “gunshot” method in the beginning. This involves having sex every other day during the middle third of your cycle. Your doctor can help you figure out when this critical time of your cycle happens. If you try the gunshot method for 6 months without success, you may need to start looking into other options such as IVF.

Some Stories Of Pregnancy Over 4:

Here are the real-life stories picked from Quora about women who conceived after 45 . We bet they would definitely offer you hope, comfort, and inspiration if you are planning to get pregnant at this age.

Carole Hobson, a 58-year-old barrister, and social worker underwent five rounds of in-vitro fertilization treatment using donor eggs and sperm to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother. She conceived using donor eggs taken from a 24-year-old Indian woman and sperm from a Scandinavian engineering graduate.

A 48-year-old woman from Minnesota was pregnant through IVFusing a donor egg.

Anita Arora, a 46-year-old from Southfields, was found to be pregnant when she came to the hospital complaining of early menopause. The baby was delivered at 29 weeks using Cesarean section and was put in a neonatal unit for recovery.

So if you still plan for pregnancy, contact your doctor so that you get the best advice depending on your health and body.

What is your opinion on late pregnancy? Do you think it is normal to have babies at an older age in these changing times? Put your thoughts in the below comment section.

Women’s Age And Fertility

A woman is born with all the eggs she is going to have in her lifetime. Her eggs age with her, decreasing in quality and quantity. Age is the single most important factor affecting a woman ‘s fertility. While good health improves the chance of getting pregnant and having a healthy baby, it doesn ‘t override the effects of age on a woman ‘s fertility.

A woman in her early to mid-20s has a 2530% chance of getting pregnant every month. Fertility generally starts to reduce when a woman is in her early 30s, and more so after the age of 35. By age 40, the chance of getting pregnant in any monthly cycle is around 5%.

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Why Does Age Affect My Fertility

Fertility decreases with age, particularly after the age of 35 because both the number and quality of eggs gets lower.

An egg is sent from your ovaries to your womb every month from when you hit puberty to the menopause. When the egg binds with sperm in the womb you get pregnant. Although it may seem like your body is making a new egg every month, this is not the case. Women are born with all the eggs they ever have and they are stored in the ovaries. As you get older your eggs get older too. To learn about your cycle of fertility, check out our ovulation calculator.

Learn To Recognize The Signs

pregnant at 48  Love What Matters

Women in their fifties most likely reach menopause or are in their perimenopause stage of life. The signs of menopause can sometimes be similar to that of pregnancy, so it is important that you recognise the symptoms of pregnancy such as nausea, constipation, swollen breasts, and food sensitivity at 50.

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When Is It Too Late For Pregnancy

Menopause is defined as the stopping of the menstrual cycle . Most women reach this milestone somewhere between their late 40s and early 50s, with an average age of around 51 years old. So, its entirely possible to get pregnant the old-fashioned way into your 50s.

Easy? Not necessarily. But possible? Yes.

Before the menstrual cycle completely stops, theres a period called perimenopause when cycles become longer and less regular.

Generally, women enter perimenopause sometime in their mid 40s, but some may hit this point as early as their mid 30s. Youre still producing eggs during this time, so pregnancy is possible albeit more difficult to achieve.

Of course, youve probably heard stories of much older women carrying pregnancies to term. For example, a 74-year-old woman in India gave birth to twin girls in 2019.

Whats important to understand about stories like these is that these women often undergo hormone therapy and in vitro fertilization . Theyre the rare exception, not the norm.

The majority of women over age 45 cant conceive without the help of IVF and other ART procedures. That said, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine shares that any woman of any age can get pregnant with medical help provided that she has a normal uterus even if she no longer has ovaries or ovarian function.

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Pregnant naturally at 48!

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How Long It Takes To Get Pregnant Depending On Age

More than 8 out of 10 of couples where the woman is under 40 will get pregnant naturally within a year of having regular unprotected sex .

One study found that for couples having regular unprotected sex:

  • around 7 out of 10 women aged 30 will conceive within one year
  • around 6 out of 10 women aged 35 will conceive within one year
  • around 4 out of 10 women aged 40 will conceive within one year.

There are several causes for fertility problems, but sometimes an exact cause cant be found. This is called unexplained infertility. Unexplained infertility is rare when the woman is in her 20s but becomes the most common cause of infertility in women over 35 years of age.

There are treatments such as IVF that can help you to conceive if you are struggling. You should see your GP if you havent conceived after a year of trying or within six months of trying to conceive if you are over 36.

If you know you have any other health concerns related to fertility, such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome or thyroid problems you should also make an earlier appointment with your doctor.

Remember that age is not the only thing that may affect your fertility. Smoking, alcohol and drug use, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases can also have an impact on your ability to get pregnant.

Pregnancy Success At Different Ages

My Experience With Being Pregnant at 40 || 40 and Pregnant

Its true that theres a biological clock of sorts. It starts when you get your first period and stops when you reach menopause. As time goes on, your chances of having a successful pregnancy become less and less as your egg reserve diminishes, your egg quality decreases, and your hormones change.

Fertility rates trend with the average number of eggs a woman has at any given age. In general, you begin puberty with between 300,000 to 500,000 eggs. This number drops to around 25,000 at age 37 and continues dropping to 1,000 or fewer by age 51.

How does this look exactly? Well, the likelihood of becoming pregnant naturally after a year of trying is as follows:

< 30 years old

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Women’s Age And Pregnancy Complications

The risk of pregnancy complications increases with age too. The risk of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus increase from age 35. Complications such as gestational diabetes, placenta previa , caesarean section and still birth are also more common among older women than younger women.

Conditions that may affect a woman ‘s fertility include endometriosisand polycystic ovary syndrome.

Benefits Of Having A Baby After 40

While having a child when you’re older comes with challenges, there are also some unique benefits to being a parent later in life.

Some possible benefits of having a baby after 40 include:

  • You might be more emotionally prepared. Being older does not always equate with maturity, but many people feel more emotionally settled by this point in their life. If you’re in a supported, strong, emotional place, you’ll be better prepared for the ups and downs of pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing.
  • You might have more financial stability.After several decades of working, saving, and investing, the cost of raising kids might not feel as overwhelming as it did when you were younger.
  • You might be more ready to focus on family. By midlife, you’ve probably checked off a lot of goals, from education and career to travel and forming lasting relationships with others. You may feel free to be more focused on building a family. You might have a home of your own or at least be settled into a community that you care about. If you have a partner, you’re hopefully feeling secure and stable in your relationship and are excited about parenting with them.

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Your Age And Free Ivf On The Nhs

Fertility treatments such as IVF can help women conceive. But as with natural conception, IVF is less successful as women get older because, unless you use donor eggs, the quality of your eggs also gets worse with age. For this reason some areas in the UK will only offer free NHS treatment before you have reached a certain age. If you do have IVF, the clinic will discuss with you what your likelihood of success in relation to your age.

NICE is the body that makes recommendations to your NHS Trust about what treatment it should offer. According to NICE, women under 40 should be offered 3 cycles of IVF treatment free of charge on the NHS if:

  • tests show that IVF is the only treatment likely to help you get pregnant.
  • you have not become pregnant with regular unprotected sex for 2 years
  • you have not become pregnant after 12 cycles of artificial insemination

NICE also says that women aged 40 to 42 should be offered 1 cycle of IVF free of charge on the NHS if:

  • youve been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for 2 years, or haven’t been able to get pregnant after 12 cycles of artificial insemination
  • youve never had IVF treatment before
  • you show no evidence of low ovarian reserve .

Again, if tests show IVF is the only treatment likely to help you get pregnant, you should be referred straight away.

  • do not having any children already
  • are a healthy weight

The Role Of Age In Fertility

48 years old, weeks shy of our 25th wedding anniversary, Im expecting ...

Age plays an important role in fertility. Your chances of being able to get pregnant naturally start to lower slightly in your late 20s, and considerably in your late 30s. Once you hit 40, your chances of conceiving can drop to 5-10%. By the age of 45, the chance of pregnancy drops to less than 5%.

These are statistics for the general population, but theres always room for outliers. There are instances where a 24-year-old can be struggling to conceive, while older women approaching menopause can have an unexpected pregnancy.

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You Asked: Can You Still Get Pregnant At 47

  • Do you still ovulate during perimenopause?
  • Slim to none, doctors say. Spontaneous pregnancy someone 47 is VERY low, Kort wrote in an e-mail, explaining that your chances of conceiving naturally at that age are less than 5 percent each month, and the miscarriage rate in the first trimester is 70 to 80 percent.

    Who Can Still Get Pregnant

    The bottom line is if you havent reached menopause defined as 12 straight months without a period you can still get pregnant. Dr. Bembry acknowledges that some women develop a false sense of security when they go off birth control and go for years without becoming pregnant.

    Similarly, women with a history of infertility might assume they cant get pregnant in their 40s. The same goes for women with premature ovarian failure. While these patients may look like theyre menopausal, they can still ovulate and become pregnant.

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    Can A Woman 48 Year Old Get Pregnant

    A woman in this age can be pregnant or not.Only with the pyshic way man and woman with no condom. Not the way with science that can done miracles.

    • Don’t want to be that guy but this account seems to be a bit of a troll going around…

    Conception can occur from menarche to menopause . The CDC lists the average age of menarche as about 13 years and menopause as 51 .

    A 48 year old woman, if still having an active menstrual cycle, can get pregnant. However, there are risks of having a pregnancy at that age. Remember that all of the eggs that a woman has are present at birth. This means that a 48 year old woman has kept all of those eggs for her entire life, and that they have been exposed to all of the various stresses that people have over a lifetime. This can include the effects of medications, radiation exposure , and other considerations. As a result, the risk of birth defects increases with age of the woman. I strongly recommend consultation with a physician, including special consultation with a fertilization expert. Genetic counseling may also be of particular benefit to help you with family planning.

    Finally, I would also espouse getting a triple screen done should a successful pregnancy happen. This will help you to identify some potentially devastating genetic defects well before birth, thus giving you options for family planning.

    Pregnant At 48 Years Old

    48-year-old becomes a mum after 18 miscarriages

    belle453 · 14/11/2010 16:45

    I am 6 weeks pregnant and 48 years old. I am extremely scared and worried about the massive implications of this. This will be my first child after suffering a miscarraige at 40 and never conceiving since. I am certainly not delighted. If the baby does go to full term and is healthy which is the main concern obviously I am then going to have to deal with the age thing. The few friends of mine who have children are all in their 20s and I have a step-daughter of 28. Help I want my life back already!!!

    lollipopshoes · 14/11/2010 17:43

    Hello. I’m 41 and pg. I do have three children already, and have had a couple of miscarriages Last time I was pg it was quite embarrassing telling people – I knew they were thinking “at YOUR age!!!” This time we haven’t told anyone yet and won’t until I’m 12 weeks but I’m not really looking forward to it if I’m honest.My eldest child is nearly 17 and one of the things that worries me is if we’re all out together people will think that this child is my grandchild.I am happy about the pgy and looking forward to adding to our brood but of course I have worries, I am deffo an old mother!Congratulations on your pgy, and if you want to share experiences, I’m around here most days at the moment.

    gotmunchies · 16/11/2010 22:34

    spiderlight · 16/11/2010 22:43

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    Changes In Menstrual Cycle

    Women who are pregnant or in perimenopause will see shifts in their menstrual cycle because of hormonal changes. A missed period is a tell-tale sign of pregnancy, while irregular periods may mean the onset of menopause.

    Signs of irregular menstruation include changes in blood flow, light spotting, and longer or shorter periods. Its important to remember that irregular periods could indicate another condition. Speak with your doctors about any concerns.

    Learn more about conditions that can lead to a missed period »

    What Are The Benefits To Having A Baby Later In Life

    While people have traditionally had children in their 20s and 30s, many feel that there are some advantages to waiting or adding another child to the family years after youve had your first.

    You may wish to travel, establish or advance your career, or become more comfortable with your own identity before initially starting a family. These are all popular reasons for putting off first-time parenthood.

    Or, you may find a partner later in life and decide you want children together. Or and this is completely legit! you may not want kids when youre younger, and then change your mind.

    When youre in your 40s and 50s, youre perhaps more likely to have the financial stability and flexibility that can make it easier to care for children. Youll also have more life experiences.

    Having children with a large gap in their ages also has benefits that appeal to many families. A mix of older and younger children allows for the older ones to take a more active role in caring for a new little one.

    And if you already have children when you get pregnant in your 40s or even 50s, youll love the joys of parenthood all over again and likely with less stress than the first time around!

    While having a baby later in life can be easier in some respects, it may also be more difficult to conceive. Your pregnancy will also automatically be considered high risk.

    Some of the risks of having babies in your 50s include:

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