Getting Pregnant in Later Years

If you are 35 or older, you and your baby may be at an increased risk for problems. Most women of advanced maternal age who are in good health will not have problems during pregnancy, but they have an increased risk of complications. A pregnancy can initiate or worsen high blood pressure, heart disease, or kidney disease. Older women also have a higher risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.

Mothers who have complicated pregnancies may have to deliver their babies early, or have infants that are small. The biggest risk for women who are 35 or older is genetic abnormalities in the baby, such as Down syndrome. If 1000 33-year-old women are tested, five of them will have a baby with abnormal chromosomes. If 1000 40-year-old women are tested, 25 will have a baby with a chromosome problem. The risk continues to rise as women get older.

This increased risk is found in all women of advanced maternal age regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. If you will be older than 35 when your baby is born, you should be offered genetic counseling and, if desired, prenatal diagnosis by chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis. Nowadays, many women younger than 35 years will also choose to have genetic testing in pregnancy.

It’s also more difficult to get pregnant when you are older. The chance of getting pregnant in a given month decreases as you get older, and your risk of miscarriage rises after age 35. If you are older than 35 and have been trying to get pregnant for more than six months, you should talk to your health care provider about fertility treatments.

The bottom line: if you are older than 35 and want to have a baby, you should go for it – but recognize you’re facing a bumpier road than you might have 10 years earlier.

Review Date: 2/19/2007
Reviewed By: Douglas A. Levine, MD, Gynecology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

A.D.A.M.'s health encyclopedia is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation Healthcare Commission (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is the first of its kind, requiring compliance with 53 standards of quality and accountability, verified by independent audit. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial reviewers. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics (www.hiethics.com) and subscribes to the principles of the Health on the Net Foundation (www.hon.ch).

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. Copyright 2002 A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.