Mariah Carey: Pregnant After all!

Mariah Carey has officially confirmed that she and husband Nick Cannon are expecting a baby in the spring.

After months of speculation about her pregnancy, the 40-year-old singer spoke with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush about the good news.

“Yes, we are pregnant, this is true!” Mariah shared. “It’s been a long journey. It’s been tough because I’ve been trying to hold on to a shred of privacy.”

“The greatest gift on earth is a child,” Nick said in the interview. “We’ve had names picked out from the first day we met and we want to stay true to that.”

Congrats to the happy couple!

Women over 40 lead surge in demand for IVF

Women over the age of 40 are flocking to fertility clinics in a final attempt to start a family before their biological clock stops ticking, latest figures show. 

The fortysomethings are the fastest-growing group of patients seeking IVF, up from less than 1,000 in 1991 to more than 6,000 in 2006.

Demand for IVF has soared for all age groups in the past decade, with almost 40,000 cycles of treatment provided in 2006. Forty-plus women have led the surge, rising from 10 per cent of all cycles in 2000 to more than 15 per cent in 2006.

Experts said the trend was a consequence of the social pressures on women to delay starting a family while establishing their careers and growing awareness of the potential of fertility treatment. But they warned that many older women faced having their hopes dashed as success rates for IVF declined sharply with advancing years.

The figures also reveal rising demand from single and lesbian women. Cycles of treatment provided to single women increased from 600 in 1999 to more than 1,200 in 2006. The number of treatment cycles for lesbian couples rose from 300 to almost 1,000 in the same period.

Medical advances and improvements in technique have seen success rates for treatment increase dramatically. The overall live birth rate has risenfrom 14 per cent per cycle of treatment in 1991, to 21 per cent in 2006. The success rates are even higher for women under the age of 35 with more than one in four becoming pregnant at the first attempt. But the rates fall sharply after women pass the age of 35, declining to 12 per cent at age 40.

Moreover, the over-40s have not seen the improvement in live birth rates experienced by younger women. Success rates have improved only slightly over the past 15 years as doctors have run up against the barrier of female biological clock. After the age of 43, more than 95 per cent of patients treated return home childless.

Angela McNab, chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which published the figures on the occasion of the authority's annual conference in London yesterday, said the growth in demand from women over 40 was worrying. "Scandinavian countries are seeing the trend to delay motherhood even more markedly," she said. "It is a matter of concern. We may need to remind women about the biological clock and the difficulty of achieving pregnancy over 40."

She denied that clinics were pushing the treatment to older women, citing the practice of some doctors to refuse treatment to women in their forties. "I don't think the clinics are over-selling IVF [to older women]," she said. "I think there is greater awareness among the public about infertility and the range of treatments available."

NHS trusts refuse to fund treatment for women over the age of 40 on advice from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) because of the low success rate, leaving women to pay for the treatment.

The average cost of a cycle of treatment ranges from £4,000 to £8,000. A woman having three or four cycles faces a bill of at least £12,000 and up to £32,000.

Sam Abdalla, director of the Lister fertility clinic, said society was imposing a "massive strain" on women by forcing them to choose between family and career. "It puts more of a burden on the women because it reduces their chances of conceiving and puts more strain on the treatment, especially in women over 45." He added that treatment in women over 40 was "less successful, with fewer pregnancies, a higher miscarriage rate and a lower live birth rate". But he stressed that the vast majority of women seeking treatment - 85 per cent - were under 40 with around half under 35.

For these women, the HFEA plans to publish figures showing the cumulative success rate for two or more cycles of treatment, to help those who fail to get pregnant at the first attempt decide whether it is worth continuing. Preliminary calculations show women under 35 increase their chances of having a baby from 26 per cent with one cycle of treatment to 55 per cent with three cycles. Nice recommends three cycles on the NHS but most NHS trusts provide only one cycle.

Ms McNab said: "The figures speak well for themselves. What that means for the primary care trusts is for them to consider."

The figures show a rise in the proportion of couples in whom male infertility is reported. Experts said this was likely to be due to better diagnosis of male problems rather than an increase in men with infertility. 

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/women-over-40-lead-surge-in-demand-for-ivf-451908.html

Elizabeth Adeney !!PREGNANT AT 66 THE MOTHER-TO-BE SETS OFF A MEDICAL AND ETHICAL DEBATE!!

Elizabeth Adeney, a 66-year-old divorced businesswoman who is approximately eight-months pregnant, will soon be the oldest woman to give birth in UK history. She beats out the previous record-holder by four years.Woman is Pregnant at 66.

Britain's oldest mother, aged 66, gives birth to a 5lb 3oz boy

A woman of 66 has given birth to a baby boy  -  making her Britain's oldest new mother. 

Elizabeth Adeney and her newborn son, who weighed 5lb 3oz, are said to be doing 'extremely well'  in hospital.

The child, who was conceived through IVF, was delivered by caesarean section on Tuesday afternoon. 

Doctors are understood to have brought the procedure forward because Mrs Adeney, who carried her son almost to full term, had developed a complication. 

Mrs Adeney becomes the UK's oldest mother by four years, overtaking Patti Farrant who had a son, Jude, at the age of 62 three years ago. 

A friend of the divorcee said: 'Lizzie is absolutely thrilled. This is something she thought might never happen. She can't wait to get home and start her new life with her boy.' 


As revealed in the Daily Mail earlier this month, Mrs Adeney travelled to Ukraine for the IVF treatment as clinics here refuse to treat women over 50. 

The case has reignited the debate over post-menopausal motherhood which has been made possible by modern scientific techniques. 

Mrs Adeney first had fertility treatment two decades ago during her short-lived marriage to Robert Adeney, now 71, but was told by medical experts at the time that she could no longer continue with attempts to fall pregnant. 

A source close to Mr Adeney said the marriage foundered as Mrs Adeney became consumed with the desire to have children.
 

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189068/Britains-oldest-mother-Elizabeth-Adeney-gives-birth-5lb-3oz-boy.html

Fertility Statistics

Infertility impacts more than one in every six Australian couples, or over three million Australians, and this trend is increasing. Infertility is predicted to affect one in three couples within the next ten years. 

Infertility is clinically diagnosed after a couple has been unsuccessful in their attempts to conceive after one year of trying to fall pregnant. It can also refer to the inability to carry a pregnancy to term. Infertility can affect the male or female partner, or both.

Today we are choosing to pursue parenthood much later in our reproductive lives than ever before. Some studies are estimating that the average age for females to conceive for the first time is about 30.2 years. Compare this to previous generations when the average age was 24.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the number of births in women aged over 30 has doubled in the past 25 years.
The birth rate for women under 29 has almost halved over the past 20 years.

The highest birth rate is now between the 30 to 34 age group for women.

Women aged between 35 and 39 are having more babies than women aged 20 to 24.

The ‘baby boom' period peaked in 1961 when women were having an average 3.5 babies each. In 2000, this number declined by half to 1.75 babies per woman within 40 years.

Marriage is happening later now and this could be a significant factor in the decline of conception rates. In 1979, the median age of a woman marrying was 21 - in 2002 it was 29. From age 21, a woman typically has about 1 million eggs and by 29 this number drops to an average 250,000.

An average healthy couple in their 20s has a 20 percent chance of successful conception in any given month. After the age of 35, this success rate drops to a 10 to 15 percent chance. In a woman over 40, the odds drop to a 5 percent chance of conception. After the age of 45, the conception percentage is about 1 percent.

However, Jason believes these statistics are not solid, indisputable facts and there is still hope for women who can defy the laws of statistics and make the improbable happen. Even with these statistical odds, the number of births among women aged 45 to 49 today has increased a remarkable 500 percent from only a decade ago.

Through Jason Jackson's Greenslopes Naturopathic Clinic, at least 60 48-year-old women and more than a few 50-year-old women have given birth for the first time after being given little to no chance of natural conception.

Male reproductive failure is thought to be the cause of 50 to 70 percent of infertility cases in western countries.

Of the 20 per cent of couples who experience infertility, the causal factor can be in found in 80 per cent of couples.

Source: http://www.makingbabies.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=7

Pregnancy Booster Clomid (Pregnancy Health Guru)

Clomid is one of several prescription fertility drugs that can be used to aid conception and boost fertility.

A guided tour of the IVF procedure

This video tells you all wanted to know about IVF but didn't know whom to ask ! So what actually happens in an IVF cycle ? We all know that IVF is expensive - but you still have a hundred questions ! Is it painful ? complicated ? how do they take out your eggs ? how do they put them back ? what actually happens in the IVF lab ? Here's a guided tour of what going through an IVF cycle involves !