What to do when you plan your pregnancy at the age of 40?

Women today look towards financial stability first in their life and are more focused towards their career. And not only women, men are also in no hurry to start a family any time soon; hence given the rise to DINK couples (double income and no kids). As a result more women are getting married around 30-35 years of age or even later. Due to this, the mean age at first pregnancy is also slowly rising, with many women approaching Fertility Clinics for the first time at the age of 40 years for help in conceiving.

Delaying pregnancy sometimes leads to miscarriage or even infertility. With increasing age in females, the ovarian reserve or the number of eggs that a lady has, reduces drastically translating into decreased chances of natural pregnancy. Moreover there is a rapid decline in quality of eggs too due to which the chances of miscarriages also may increase. Research has shown that a 40 year old female seeking fertility has only 25 % chance of pregnancy with own eggs and it decreases to 1.6% at age of 44. If she conceives, the risk of miscarriage is around 25% at 40 years and around 50% at 44 years.

At the age of 40 and above, the incidence of medical problems like Diabetes Mellitus, High Blood Pressure is more. These may get aggravated during the