”Become a mother at 50?”
STUDY SAYS GO AHEAD; HOWEVER, AN ORLANDO EXPERT WARNED WOMEN TO CHECK OUT ALL THE RISKS BEFORE USING DONATED EGGS TO GET PREGNANT.

Orlando Sentinel

Healthy postmenopausal women in their 50s shouldn't be prevented from having babies with donated eggs, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Even so, one Orlando infertility expert has his doubts about the wisdom of fertility treatments for women of that age.

"I'm not sure it's always wise to do it just because we can do it," said Dr. Gary DeVane of the Center for Reproductive Medicine, who doesn't take patients older than 48.

The latest study involved 77 postmenopausal women who participated in the assisted reproduction program at the University of Southern California between 1991 and last year. There were no deaths of either an infant or mother, and 42 of the healthy postmenopausal women had babies.

The rates of pregnancy of 45 percent and multiple births of 30 percent were similar to those in younger women who get pregnant with donor eggs.

But preeclampsia, a potentially serious condition involving high blood pressure, occurred in 35 percent of the older women, and gestational diabetes occurred in about 20 percent -- rates at least double the rate of younger women.

Those conditions, researchers said, were temporary and not reason enough to exclude women from attempting pregnancy.

DeVane, however, said those conditions shouldn't be taken lightly.

"Pregnancy is an ultimate stress on a body," he said.

Along with increased health risks, about 78 percent of the women had Caesarean births, which DeVane called "pretty high."

Biologically, most women cannot become pregnant after menopause, which occurs around age 51.

In such cases, donated eggs and sperm create embryos through in-vitro fertilization, and patients take hormones to prepare the uterus for pregnancy.

DeVane said his center's ethics board decided eight years ago that it wouldn't treat women who had undergone menopause. DeVane said he doesn't remember the last time anyone older than 49 had inquired about fertility treatment.

DeVane said his center has helped about a dozen women older than 42 conceive.

Elsewhere in Orlando, at the Reproductive Health Institute at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women, the usual age cutoff is 47.

But Dr. Richard Paulson, the lead researcher of USC's program, said women past menopause should not be denied.

"Not only do I not have a problem in allowing them to become pregnant, I would have an ethical problem in denying them," he said.