Fertility Blogs

a blog by Ebru Halper, April 23, 2013

According to the CDC, 20 percent of women in the US, today, have their first child after 35. A woman’s age often comes up as the main cause for a couple’s inability to conceive. It’s an acknowledged and socially recognized matter—from our celebrities to our everyday faces of infertility, we are mostly used to seeing women in their late thirties to early forties, coming to terms with their biological clock. Thus, perhaps, it is not surprising that there is an unspoken insensitivity for younger infertility patients.

a blog by Claire, February 19, 2013

“The Duchess” is pregnant…and we don’t mean Kate Middleton!

Fergie A.K.A. Stacy Ferguson (37) and husband Josh Duhamel (40) are expecting. Ferguson joins the ranks of celebrity moms-to-be over the age of 35. There has been no mention on whether the couple used fertility treatments to conceive, but being over the age of 35 does come with a decline in fertility and increased risk of pregnancy complications. It is often recommended that expecting mothers of advanced maternal age seek medical supervision of a high-risk maternal fetal medicine doctor (MFM).

Carrie Ann Inaba, judge of the hit show Dancing with the Stars, is ready for parenthood!

In an interview with PEOPLE magazine, Inaba says “I really do want to have a child, so I’m putting my energies toward that”. The recently single celeb has been seeing a fertility doctor over the last few months and is considering in vitro fertilization (IVF) for conceiving her first bundle of joy.

a blog by Claire, August 15, 2012

OK, this is a little hard to explain for those of us who took the least amount of math as possible during college and can't remember a thing about high school …

But evidently there is something called the "Golden Ratio" in math. And if you have a uterus that perfectly proportional, that is in proportions matching the Golden Ratio, you are at your most fertile, according to a doctor in Belgium who decided to study this.

Huh?

OK, let's back up.

a blog by Claire, June 22, 2012

For those of us old enough to remember the bicentennial year 1976, we may also remember the movie Logan's Run, a science fiction movie with Farrah Fawcett about a future society that manages population and consumption of resources by killing everyone who reaches the age of 30. The characters can't lie about their age because they were implanted at birth with a Lifeclock crystal in the palm of their hand, which changes colors as they approach their "Last Day."

Maybe the ticking of the biological clock is not quite so dramatic, but Mira Kaddoura, an artist in Portland, Oregon, has created The Wonder Clock, a stark website in purple and black that is counting down the end of her childbearing years — down to the second. Last we looked, she had 9 years, 6 months, 15 days, 21 hours, 2 minutes, 57 seconds … no, 56 seconds, 55 seconds, 54 seconds … well, you get the point. She also created a wearable piece of art, a belt with six screens, each showing a different unit of time.

a blog by Robyn Nazar, RN, BSN, July 13, 2011

To read more of Robyn Nazar's The Fertile World: A Nurse's Perspective blogs, CLICK HERE.

a blog by David Kreiner, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., East Coast Fertility, December 28, 2010

Rajo Devi Lohan, the world’s oldest Mom after IVF, using donated eggs, is dying at age 72. It was just 18 months ago that she gave birth.

A blog by Ellen Glazer, August 12, 2010

Joyce at 34 is a documentary about a filmmaker, Joyce Chopra, who, together with her husband, decides to have a baby at age 34. There is nothing remarkable about that decision these days, but when the film was made in 1972, it was noteworthy.

by Rachel Gurevich, June 29, 2010

You may have read or heard the news about a 66 year old woman who gave birth to triplets in India. The new mother has never had a child before, and was eager to become a mother.

Meanwhile, Rajo Devi Lohan, the oldest woman to ever give birth, is dying at age 70, just 18 months after having her daughter. The news story said she is dying of complications from her IVF pregnancy, which she has been unable to overcome.

These stories together have my heart and mind churning over when is it too old to have a baby.

And I don’t mean when is it too old for IVF to be successful, or how old can you get pregnant without fertility treatments. I mean simply when -- ethically and morally -- should pregnancy be considered no longer an option.

I’ll be honest with you and say I’m not sure what I believe on this issue. In fact, I’m confused. I argue with myself.

Why older celebrities getting pregnant shouldn't be headline news.

a blog by David Kreiner, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

The Fertility news is constantly highlighted in sensational headlines, the most recent of which was, “49 Year Old Woman Conceives with Own Egg through IVF.” In the past several months, readers have been entertained with “Octomom,” a “Woman Pregnant with a Dozen,” “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” and “a 62 Year Old Mother through IVF,” not to mention the numerous over 45- and sometimes over 50- year old celebrities having babies supposedly with their own eggs.

Reading these “news” stories one may get the impression that fertility is a thriving business bearing little resemblance to the medical specialty of reproductive endocrinology requiring seven years of post-medical school training.