大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - IVF for 55-year-olds 鈥� is a woman ever too old to have a baby?

IVF for 55-year-olds 鈥� is a woman ever too old to have a baby?

17 January 2019

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists advises that . When it comes to IVF, the NHS has an upper-age limit of 42. There is, however, no cut-off in law for private clinics.

The Medical Director at the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Dr Marco Gaudoin, told Mornings with Kaye Adams that he would consider helping women as old as 55 to have a child.

Is a woman ever too old to have a baby?

Private IVF has no cut-off age for women, but it is 42 years old if going through NHS.

According to Dr Gaudoin, there are many stereotypes in society about what women should be doing at particular stages of their lives — but that same scrutiny is not applied to men.

Celebrities Mick Jagger, and are examples of men who fathered children at an older age. Dr Gaudin argues that they were not judged the same as a similar-aged woman of the same age would have.

Dr Gaudoin also described what he perceives as a biological double standard.

“We’re ignoring the impact ageing has on the biology of sperm, but we take that fully into account when looking at the woman and her eggs.

“Increased age of the father sees an increase in abnormalities – such as autism, Down’s syndrome, schizophrenia – within the child. Older mothers using donor eggs don’t see an increase in these issues.”