As recent reports of a 62 year-old Spanish woman successfully giving birth after IVF treatment began to circulate, following similar reports of 72 year-old Daljinder Kaur giving birth earlier in 2021, prospective parents around the world have a new ray of hope in starting a family.

There is growing consensus spanning medical disciplines that advanced assisted reproductive techniques are able to effectively help women facing infertility or adverse social conditions overcome the obstacles to becoming mothers.

IVF has been a boon in helping couples provide infertility solutions, helping them reproduce. However, the success of a couple at pregnancy calls for the inputs of a healthcare scientist, an embryologist in particular, who plays an imperative role in the entire process.  

Providing diagnostic services and embryological procedures, a reproductive embryologist performs careful examination of quality embryos to help couples have the best chance at becoming parents.

Embryo quality is one of the most important factors based on which a women’s pregnancy is defined. Embryo quality correlates with the maternal age, causes of infertility, ovarian stimulation parameters or embryo cohort size, and the outcome of the IVF cycle invariably depends on the above factors.

“As every woman is different, so the quality, gene expression and development of the embryo vary. However, as you age, the embryo quality is bound to deteriorate which increases the chances of infertility of aneuploidy, stating the abnormality of the embryos,” stated Dr. Goral Gandhi, an embryologist who is also a community advocate and educator of IVF and ART in India.

So how can older mothers, who want to opt for IVF or maybe conceive on their own make sure that their embryos are as healthy as possible? The answer lies in embryo testing, as it helps mitigate the chances of an unhealthy pregnancy, ensuring that the fetus is devoid of chromosomal abnormalities before implantation, suggests Dr Goral Gandhi. Her work in research and evaluation of pre-implantation genetic screening technology, and fertility-treatment-assisted pregnancies makes Gandhi an established authority.

“Older women understand their time is limited. If they lose three months because of a miscarriage, that’s a lot of time. Most patients like the idea of having as much information in front of them as possible, so they don’t have to go through the very difficult waiting period between the embryo transfer and the pregnancy test if the embryo wouldn’t have resulted in pregnancy,” says Goldman, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

When it comes to women above 30, it is deemed appropriate to transfer multiple embryos, to boost the overall success of the procedure. The choice is, however, elective and can be best if decided upon the consideration of the embryologist. “Numbers for live birth rates show that older DNA can be rescued by modern IVF, and this offers great hope to women in their 40s who hope to be a mum,” Queensland Fertility Group medical director Dr David Molloy told The Sunday Mail.

Although ART has been used to treat infertility in both men, women of all age brackets, it calls for an extensive evaluation of treatment options by both the patient and the doctor before opting for any procedure.

Your age shouldn’t be a bar to measure your success and ability as a parent, and IVF has helped women exceed their fertility limits, and give birth to healthy babies regardless of their age.