Doctors have warned that celebrities who give birth in their forties and don’t admit to having fertility treatment are giving false hope to fans who have delayed motherhood.
According to Adam Balen of the British Fertility Society, if more celebrities were prepared to speak out about using donor eggs and IVF treatment “it would do the world of fertility medicine a lot of good,”
The latest research suggests that at 44, it is up to 20 times more difficult to get pregnant using IVF than it is at 39, yet doctors regularly find their patients are surprised when they discover how low their chances of conceiving are after fertility begins its natural decline at 37.
Professor Balen said: ‘The key thing is the heartache of infertility that affects older women who haven’t realised that it’s not so easy to get pregnant just as soon as you wish.
‘And while you hear lots of good news stories about celebrities who may have given birth at an older age, nobody knows the number of celebrities who may not have been able to have babies, either because of infertility or possibly fertility treatment that has been unsuccessful.
‘There is always a strong possibility that many of these celebrities may well have sought the help of assistance in a fertility clinic and may have conceived either with IVF or donor eggs.
Famous older mums include diva Mariah Carey, who gave birth to twins following IVF at the age of 41, and Halle Berry, who gave birth to daughter Nahla at 42 and her son Maceo at 47.
Commenting after Berry’s second pregnancy, Joshua U. Klein, MD, medical director of Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York -Brooklyn said:
“Natural pregnancies—when a woman is trying to get pregnant with her own egg—do occur in women in their mid 40s, but it would be nearly miraculous,” According to Dr. Klein, the the chance of having a baby without intervention at age 46 is around 0.01 per cent or less.
