Getting Pregnant After 40

Is getting pregnant over 40 possible?

It is common for a woman to consider having a baby after 40, whether for the first time or to add more children to the family. At CHR, we specialize in helping women get pregnant over 40 with their own eggs using a treatment plan best suited to their individual clinical circumstances.

After a few years of steady increase, in 2016, the share of our patients who are over 40 hit an all-time high of over 60%. These numbers didn't come as a shock: our pregnancy success rates for this group of women are among the best in the world, and older women specifically seek out our physicians' expertise to maximize their chances of getting pregnant after 40, using their own eggs rather than donor eggs.

The right treatment early increases the chances of getting pregnant after 40

For women over 40, the most common cause of infertility is diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), also called low functional ovarian reserve (LFOR), a condition characterized by a low number of eggs in a woman's ovaries and/or impaired development of these existing eggs. A diagnosis of DOR in women over 40 needs to be made rapidly so that effective treatment can quickly follow.

CHR meets many women who have postponed treatment for DOR while "watching and waiting," trying relatively ineffective treatments like IUI, or undergoing endless tests at other fertility centers. Unfortunately, without effective treatment, the chances of pregnancy after 40 can only get worse with time. Not a day passes when we don't hear patients say, "Doctor, I wish I'd known about your center years ago when I was doing such and such..."

The chances of a successful pregnancy in your 40s decline as time goes on, so we recommend that any woman above age 40 who is interested in having children seek treatment at our center as early as possible.

Only at CHR: Innovative fertility treatments for women over 40

With more than 30 years of experience in treating women who are trying to get pregnant after 40, in addition to having published hundreds of research studies on this topic, the CHR is considered one of the world's leading centers for the treatment of DOR. Our physicians and scientists have developed many "firsts" in fertility treatments for women over 40 - including the use of DHEA supplementation, androgen monitoring, and early egg retrieval, which has evolved into highly individualized egg retrieval (HIER) — that have really contributed to the ever-improving chance of pregnancy for this group of women. Many of these treatments (and more importantly, our individualized approach) are available only at CHR.