I’m not so sure this is such a great idea. While any law prohibiting anyone’s reproductive choices doesn’t sit well with me, I agree with other posters that any older person, either male or female, should take a long hard look at their reasons for reproducing. (Actually, I think anyone, regardless of gender or age should take a long hard look at their reaons for reproducing, that’s another thread entirely.)
There are, as has been mentioned above, greater health risks for an older woman bearing a child. There is an increased risk of mental retardation, physical deformities, and serious complications for the mother. I feel this should be taken into consideration- would you choose to have a child if you knew that by doing so you stood a greater than average chance of bringing an unhealthy or disabled child into the world?
Now let me clarify this- many people who know they have a family history of or are at an increased risk for an abnormal birth of any sort choose to have children anyway. This is their right. But I do feel that people in this situation need to be well-informed of the risks, and need to consider deeply their own motivations for having a child, and their ability to cope with whatever the results of that might be.
My real concern here is not so much "should older women have kids?’, but “are older women well-informed about the risks involved?” I see people rushing to have kids in their forties, not thinking about the what the consequences of this might be. I just hope they’re receiving good medical care, and are so thrilled with “I can!” that they forget about “I should?”
I may be mistaken, but the way I understand it is that the risks to the child (mental retardation, deformities) are decreased past menopause, as the mother would be using donor eggs. The mothers health risks do increase (see my post above about my friend), but these can be managed. In my friends case, she had been highly advised to have a c-section, scheduled before her due date, to lower her risks during labor and delivery. She was absolutely convinced that a non-medicated vaginal, non-induced childbirth was best for the baby - so that is what she did.
What about possible genetic deformities that come about from older women? I have heard doctors advising women to have their first child in their early 30’s at latest due to the increased likelyhood of bad genes as we grow older.
Do I remember reading something about the sperm of an older man being of a lesser quality than sperm of a younger man? Any doctors help me out? (ie that it deteriorated in a similar way to eggs, even though it’s still “freshly produced”).
For those who say these couples really need to think about their decision, I feel you need to think about your answer better. Most people who enter into IVF or any other type of assisted reproduction methods do not go into these situatons lightly. Many have endured years of conventional medicine to assist with building their family and have failed.
Besides the monetary committment for these procedures, assisted reproduction does not have the same success rate as old-fashion procreation. Someone has to be really delusional to think assisted reproduction is something that you can just go to some doctor, plunk some money down on the table and walk out with a growing baby in your womb.
Perhaps it is a bit selfish to want a family. But it is no more selfish than the those who engage in sexual relations for mere pleasure.
Well said. This is irrelavent in my book too.
Shalmanese, unless you get donor eggs from an older woman, genetic defects based on age-associated deterioration of the egg are minimal. Although, any time you deal with procreation, there are risks involved with genetic defects no matter what approach you take to conceive.
I am not a doctor, but I did want to comment. I haven’t read anything to state that age affects sperm quality. Increased age can cause problems with semen quality and sperm count. Most information I have read about decreased sperm quality pertains to environmental factors (such as exposure to chemicals in fertilizers or pesticides) or negative health choices (smoking, drugs, alcohol).
I’ve always heard the same thing. And I wonder, with the higher rates of birth defects among births to older women, how much is due to the age of the mother and (assuming these women have probably conceived with men their own age) how much is due to the age of the father?
My wife and I are hoping to have a child in the next year or two, either naturally or by adoption.
I’m about fifteen and a half months away from turning 50. (My wife is a decade or so younger than me, FWIW.) And like you say, yo’babe, nobody’s telling me I can’t do this. So why should anyone tell a woman my age bracket that she can’t?
And life expectancy is a ridiculous issue to bring up: I know which gender has the best life expectancy, and it isn’t men.