Reproductive system
causes
This decline in fertility for older women
may be due to the fact that they have a drop
in the amount and the health of their eggs to
be ovulated, hormonal alterations causing
changes in ovulation, a decline in sperm
counts, decrease of occurrence of
intercourse and more. The British
researchers team investigated that as
women grow older, the levels of the
essential protein that helps eggs produce for
the moment of fertilization decline. Also
the risk of and egg
ending up with the
wrong number of
chromosomes gets
at a high risk of
malfunctioning. A
girl is born with a
set of immature
egg cells that last
for their whole
reproductive life.
Each of the eggs
consists of two
sets of 23
chromosomes.
Before the egg can be fertilized it goes
through the process of meiosis in which
half of these chromosomes are released
leaving the egg with 23 strands of DNA
from the mother. If during meiosis, before
ovulation occurs, when half of the DNA is
released from the egg goes wrong the egg
can be generated with the wrong number of
chromosomes.
The risk of women close to
menopause
Age has an affect on fertility, meaning the
ability to conceive children, which is part of
getting pregnant and having a baby in the first
place. The Health Ministry has estimated that
around 300,000 couples aged from 20 to 40
have experienced forms of infertility.
Furthermore, the complications of pregnancy
rise once a woman reaches the age of 35 and
over. There is a decrease rate in in fertility for
women after the age of 30 and the problems of
conceiving a baby. 20 percent of women aged
35 to 39 are estimated to be infertile and so it is
known that there is a greater percentage of
women of that age who have gone through
fertility treatment. Research shows that the
affects from older age for childbirth has a growth
in terms of frequency of pregnancy complications
like “pregnancy included diabetes, low lying
placenta and premature birth.” Moreover, besides
these many dangers that can occur, a women’s
maternity care may be affected just because you
are an "elderly primigravida or an elderly multip”
How does
pregnancy of a
woman at an age
close to
menopause affect
the fetus?
Written by Mahima Wadhwa
Medical disorders
Affects on the fetus
It is a fact that by being an older woman
you have higher chances in growing
medical disorders that include, high blood
pressure and diabetes, which can affect
pregnancy. Because of medical disorders,
due to the risk of complications that may
occur during a pregnancy, they will
frequently have to get more special tests
done, have more care visits from friends
and family, and have more care during
labor and delivery. With high blood
pressure, trouble may occur with the
growth of the fetus. Moreover, women
with diabetes have a high risk of gaining
high blood pressure, pregnancy loss, and
a state called macrosomia where the
fetus may grow abnormally larger than
usual.
The age of a woman certainly has an affect on
the fetus as it can cause them to develop
different kinds of diseases and risks. It is
found that elder women have a higher chance
in giving birth to a baby with a genetic
abnormality some known as Down syndrome,
Edwards’s syndrome or pataus syndrome.
Figures show that there is a higher risk that
the fetus may die in the mother’s womb by
the end of the pregnancy that are aged 40. “In
the UK, figures for 2006 show that the rates
of stillbirth were steady at around five to six
babies per 1,000 births for women aged 20 to
39, but increased to just under nine babies per
1,000 births for women aged 40 and over”. A
mother’s age does affect the increase in
dangers to the fetus with a birth defect, which
can be caused by nondisjunction, which is the
abnormal division of the egg. Unequal
chromosomes are the result at the end of the
division. Women in their 20’s having a child
have a 1 in 1400 chance of giving birth to a
child with down syndrome. These
chromosomal malformations contribute to the
occurrence of miscarriage in elder women.
Studies have shown that while the risk of
miscarriages for women age 20 is 12 to 15%,
this figure rises to about 25% for women at
age 40.
References
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