Realistically, you can always undergo IVF unless you have experienced ovarian failure and/or menopause. However, pregnancy success rates using your own eggs drops considerably for women over 40.
Pregnancy in Your 40s
If you get pregnant after 35 years old, experts call this an “advanced maternal age” pregnancy. But it's still possible to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby in your 40s. Childbirth at older ages has become more common too. Since the 1990s, birth rates in people aged 40-44 have gone up.
Women under the age of 35 are the most likely to benefit from a six-cycle regimen. Women 40-42 (using their own eggs) had a 31.5% live birth rate at the six-cycle mark. Women older than 42 (using their own eggs) had a <4% live birth rate at the six-cycle mark.
Success rates for IVF and IVF with donor eggs
Women 35 to 37 have a 33-36% chance of having a baby. Women 38 to 40 have a 23-27% chance of having a baby. Women over 40 have a 13-18% chance of having a baby.
So on average, when we look at large groups of women, of women who want to conceive at age 40, about half will get pregnant naturally. But that decreases quickly to perhaps 20% to 25% by age 42 to 43. And by age 45, it's quite rare to become pregnant naturally.
While it's true your fertility levels drop when you turn 35, it's still possible to get pregnant later in life, even after the age of 40. Ovarian function (meaning you still ovulate regularly) and general health are the main factors that will determine if you're able to get pregnant after 40.
According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) database, in 2013 there were 5,744 IVF cycles nationally in women > 42 years of age. Of these, 8.9% resulted in a pregnancy and only 4.5% resulted in a live birth. It can be seen that almost 50% of the pregnancies resulted in a miscarriage.
It's entirely possible to get pregnant using your own eggs over 40. Yet, for some people, there seems to be an egg quality or quantity issue that we can't overcome. This is especially true for women over age 43 or 44. Donor eggs in this situation could greatly increase the chances of getting pregnant through IVF.
Women under 35 have the highest success rates in all of the “egg number” groups. Women under 38 in our IVF program have acceptable live birth rates even with only 3 – 6 eggs, do better with more than 6 eggs, and do best with more than 10 eggs.
IVF Success Rates Under 35
The Society for Reproductive Technology (SART) states that for women under 35, the percentage of live births via IVF is 55.6%. Live births per first embryo transfer is 41.4%. With a later embryo transfer, the live births percentage is around 47%.
The first IVF cycle will often be successful at a high quality program. Unfortunately, many couples will not have successful first cycle IVF results and will need to consider a second cycle.
How Many IVF Cycles Should You Try Before Stopping. In the past, most doctors discourage woman from continuing in treatment using their own eggs after about 3 to 4 failed IVF cycles. They are particularly discouraging for women who do not produce any eggs — or produce just two or fewer — with each cycle.
Not optimal, but not selfish either
The point here is to look at some of the things which people say are selfish and realize that, while it may not be the “optimal conceiving time” there are plenty of reasons to have a child over forty and those reasons are not by definition selfish.
More American women are becoming mothers later in life. For nearly 40 years straight, the proportion of American women giving birth at ages 40 to 44 was on a steady rise. That subsided in 2020 with the pandemic, when the overall birthrate in the United States dipped, but the rate among women in their late 40s grew.
Well over half of all eggs taken from women in their 40s present indicators of chromosomal abnormalities. Doctors place the best quality eggs in a lab dish to be combined with sperm.
While there is nothing we can do to prevent the regular loss of eggs as you age there are several fertility supplements you can take along with dietary and lifestyle changes that you can make to improve your egg quality after 40, and ultimately improve your chances of pregnancy.
Sometimes patients who are 40-43 years old may produce up to ten, twelve or fourteen eggs – but of poor quality. And then, the quality of the embryos is also going to be poor and, as a result, the chances of a pregnancy are not going to be good either.
In other words: women in their 20s will have mostly normal eggs, though they already have some abnormal ones. And women in their 40s will have mostly abnormal eggs—no matter how healthy a lifestyle they maintain.
The biggest downside to putting off pregnancy until your 40s is significant: It's harder to get pregnant the longer you wait. That's because your egg supply decreases significantly as you age, and older eggs are more likely to have chromosomal problems, raising the risk of miscarriage and birth defects.
Irregular period cycle and difficulty conceiving
If you are facing issues conceiving and have not been able to conceive for a while now, it could be one of the signs of bad egg quality.
A woman's peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely.
It is true that fertility does decline with age, but many women conceive naturally aged over 40 and go on to have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.
On average, research has shown that about 65.3% of patients, or two-thirds, have a successful outcome after six or more IVF cycles. This is especially applicable to IVF patients under the age of 40. There are specific factors that impact the success of an IVF procedure.