Getting Pregnant When 38...

[Amir]

You ladies...

I would like to know if there is any statistic saying that a Thai women at age 38 has less chances to get pregnant. I heard so many things about menoposis, but i don't know whether it's true or not. For example i heard that american women are more subject to early menoposis then women from other continents.

Anyway, i know that a similar threat has been discussed about fertility test, but i just would like to know if someone of you have heard anything or has statistics about Thai women trying to get pregnant at 38. Are there less chances or not?

i would be greatful about any information.

Thanks

[londonthai]

not lady, but ...

the older you are the more difficult it gets - but at 38 should not be a great deal to conceive and you should keep trying. There are medical treatments, hormones, operations, artificial insemination at hand to improve chances.

not sure about the american (it's probable due to obesity) but asian females don't have so much problems through the menopause because of the better diet (less fats and meat - more of fish and fresh vegetables) as well as social/cultural aspects (getting older in the west is a stigma for females, while in the orient they are becoming older gracefully)

[Amir]

not lady, but ...

the older you are the more difficult it gets - but at 38 should not be a great deal to conceive and you should keep trying. There are medical treatments, hormones, operations, artificial insemination at hand to improve chances.

not sure about the american (it's probable due to obesity) but asian females don't have so much problems through the menopause because of the better diet (less fats and meat - more of fish and fresh vegetables) as well as social/cultural aspects (getting older in the west is a stigma for females, while in the orient they are becoming older gracefully)

My wife worris more then me, but the more she worries, the more she makes ME worry actually.

The thing is that artificial insemination is not the "natural way" as she says, and she wants to try as much as possible without medical help. Thsi would more correspond to your suggestion about better diet... Thanks for the advice!

[Boo]

Women are born with an fixed number of eggs, i think approx 1million. By the age of 40 there are only around 25k left so regardless of nationality ALL women have a fertitily shelf life. It has been proven that women who have had kids already will find it easier to conceive later in life but FYI, I am pregnant with my first chilkd & was told by the obstetrician here in the UK that I was at the mid to upper age range for natural conception, I am 31!!!

As for diet/obesity, fat women have kids too so that theory, although true for certain situations can't be taken as a reason for fertility problems or as confirmation that you wont have any, as plenty of thin women can't conceive either due to suffering from polycystic overies etc.

A few freinds who have had kids nearing 40 have all got advice from fertitly specialists & some took hormone injections to stimulate their eggs. None needed IVF but all needed a bit of a kick from hormones/fertitily drugs.

[GuestHouse]

The issue is not as simple as getting pregnant, but also the health of the child. Older mothers are at a higher risk of giving birth to children with Down's Syndrome.

To compound matters, because Thai women generally have their children at a very much younger age than western women, Thai doctors have far less with the health issues relating to later pregnancies.

My wife was pregnant with our son at age 38 and because of this lack of Thai experience with later pregnancies she returned to the UK for health checks and to give birth.

[Amir]

I have another question:

Does anyone heard about the hairdresser syndrom. I didn't believ what my wife told me until I asked a friend whose wife has the sam problem.

Aparently, women how are heirdresser and stand on their feet the hole day for many years (this is my wifes situation as well as my friends wife) have this kind of syndrome which lowers the ovaries.

If anyone has heard about it, please let me know if this can have an influence on concieving or not. (maybe more difficult).

I know... the best would be to see a specielist and this is what i am going to do shortly, but t would be nice to know about your experience too.

[meme]

I don't know about statistics but I can tell you that I have a close friend who is Thai 38 years old and is going to have her first baby by C-section in 6 days actully. Her and her husband did not plan on having any children so it was a big shocker!!! She and her doctor were very concerned about her age and the fact that it was her first child but all has gone well so far.

[bina]

i have been working (factory work on line, kitchen work, laundry room work, and now animals) on my feet for the past 26 years (i am 44 );

got pregnant three times at regular ages, had minimal problems, except for varicose vein massive problems, and a slightly prolapsed uterus after last birth 13 yrs ago . i lifted, carried, rode horses, milked, etc etc etc... only last pregnancy was i required to cut back on heavy physical labour due to fetus placement. so no, never heard that one before although all the women here always told me horror stories of uteruses falling out etc (primitive nonsense since women have been pregnant and field workers since the beginning of time).

38 is considered an AT RISK pregnancy due to varius health issues ; the older u get, the more high risk u become . of course previous health problems become excacerbated too.

fat sheep and fat goats dont get pregnant (dont know why thats what all the old goatherd geezers told me); never heard that about a woman but we are also mammals so.....

just go to a good doctor and also, go to the internet there are a zillion sites for the over 30 and the over 40 woman who wants to get pregnant. trust me, i already checked a few out (due to younger then me husband who would like to have a child)>israel has amazing fertility clinics due to our 'push' to procreate as much as possible... free fertility stuff until age 45 and great followup and success stories. every other doctor is specialist in high risk pregnancies. we are not going that route as anon wants natural or nothing (no hormones etc). and i am not keen due to the down syndrome etc stuff.

btw, at my age, althgouh periods are regular, i dont feel my ovulation any more.

btw if u have been pregnant before with a long difference between the last pregnancy and the one u want now, there is also some equation which says that after a certain amount of years, its like a first time pregnancy all over again.

rather a wierd side note; here , every other woman i see is pregnant and shows it. in thailand, i barely saw anyone pregnant or at least not in advanced stage. do they just stay at home? or show less? its not just that i notice it. statistically we are a pregnant country. just didnt really seee anything like that in thailand and my daughter was the one who noticed, not me so much. although when u want to get pregnant u tend to notice others' pregnancies more.

bina

israel

just thought about hairdressers and then chemicals: maybe they work with chemicals that affect the ovaries and cause early miscarriages or something?? i dont think thailand has any real safety rules for pregnant or fertile age women and exposure to chemicals that are tetrogenic or cause infertility? u might want to ask about that one? dont worry too much, just ask.

Edited February 1, 2007 by bina

[Amir]

Thanks a lot everyone, i think i got all the infos i needed...

[bkkmei]

Best of luck

By the way, I suspect your wife WORRYING about it doesn't help.

[Sheryl]

Being a hairdresser won't present a problem but advancing age may. Some women readily get pregnant at your wife's age and older, but many do not. If you both want a child, don't wait any further, try now.

If you are already trying and no luck after 6 - 12 months, see a fertility specialist. There are things that can be done that are simpler and more "natural" than artificial insemination, and these are what are tried first. For example, hormone injections and fertility drugs (although the second carries a risk of multiple births).

Also, a fertility clinic will counsel your wife on how to detect the time of ovulation thereby making your natural efforts more likely to succeed.

As GuestHouse mentioned, there is a higher rate of some birth defects in late pregnancies so an amniocentesis (test done on the amniotic fluid during pregnancy to detect abnormal chromosomes in the baby) is advisable.

[Amir]

Just to give some news following the visit to a specialist with my wife this morning:

• 
  

38 years old, hear dresser with "lowered ovaries": NO Problem. Only some medication to increase the hormones or i don't remember what.

• 
  

Doctor asked me to make a sperm analysis. Yes, i forgot that 50% of the reason why couples can not concieve is due to lack of sperm quality and/or quantity... So i've done it but the doctor is closed until next week to explain me the result of the analyse. Up to me looks ok, but i am not a fertility specialist...

Waiting next week for further news.

It's just to remind all men that it's not always the women who have a problem...

Edited February 3, 2007 by Amir

[gisele]

rather a wierd side note; here , every other woman i see is pregnant and shows it. in thailand, i barely saw anyone pregnant or at least not in advanced stage. do they just stay at home? or show less? its not just that i notice it. statistically we are a pregnant country. just didnt really seee anything like that in thailand and my daughter was the one who noticed, not me so much. although when u want to get pregnant u tend to notice others' pregnancies more.

Maybe it's where you happened to be because there are pregnant women all over Nakhon Si thammarat, really everywhere, and they all wear those really dowdy pregnant clothes , even women who were fashionnable before their pregnancy start to wear those same dowdy dresses, must be a pregnant women law , so the clothes make them really easy to spot.

[tracker]

Last year, my wife lost one ovary. The cause was a fertilised egg which got stuck in the tube on its way to the womb. It started to grow there and according to the doktor this needed to be operated immediately.

Now the interesting thing about this is the amount of women getting treated for ovary removal.... sometimes with cause as above, sometimes due to cancerous stuff growing... Unfortunately i do not have the numbers. She was in a small hospital and I was told that the numbers of women between 25 and 40 was very high.

I still try to get more info on this right now. It is not easy not get. There is some indication that the high number has to do with the vaccines the girls got when they were younger. Personally, i wouldn't be suprised if it was so, but right now i cannot back it up.

T.

[Sheryl]

What you describe is an ectopic pregnancy. An egg is fertilized but instead of implanting in the womb, it starts growing eslewhere, usually in the fallopian tube. It is a serious medical emergency and requires the removal of the fallopian tube and occasionally also the ovary.

I am not aware of any data indicating it is more common in Thailand than elsewhere. Since it is a complication of pregnancy, naturally it occurs in the age groups most often pregnant.

It has nothing whatever to do with vaccination.

Known risk factors include use of an IUD for contraception and having had a sexually transmitted disease or other pelvic infection in the past. However, it can also occur without any of these factors being present.

[PeaceBlondie]

My ex-wife got pregnant at age 36, when she was overweight, and we had paternal twins (two eggs). We were told that twins are more common at advanced age, as if the ovaries start dumping extra eggs. Also, that twins were more common than Down's Syndrome. She then had another baby at age 43, and contracted diabetes only during that final pregnancy (her 9th). She was born when her mother was about 43, also. These were both well-fed Caucasian women in Texas.

[Fred Sanford]

My ex farang wife was nearly 43 when she got an unwanted pegancy by me. Our method of birth control was me pulling out everytime. She aborted the kid and regretted later as that would have linked her to me forever

[bina]

twins, and etopic pregnancy were two other reasons we are not doing the extra help route for getting pregnant. it doesnt seem that i will get pregnant again as i really dont feel the ovulation, or feel it during my period and, like a good jewish girl, dont like to 'do it' when menstruating. so... and i also used to notice the vaginal discharge changes showing ovulation, thats gone too.

btw, older male combined w/older female definately is inviting trouble... although there are so many pre natal checks nowadays that can be done (friends with very late pregnancy 40+ had girl with some kind of degenerative muscular dystrophy that couldve been found in testing but was not in the regular package of tests i guess... )

there are other tests then the amnio ; the cv (sheryl whats it called, when they take a sample from the placenta thru the vagina, not a needle like amnio?)

but the couples here in israel, when are over age 40 the doc ususally requires that they get what is called genetic counselling to discuss the possibility of miscarriage or planned abortion because test results show problems. we are a religious country so terminating a non viable fetus means going thru a committee etc... so i have to take all that in to account.

dont know for thailand, what kind of followups etc there are. asked anon, he hadnt a clue that any of this stuff even existed until i found info on a thai baby /mom web site. he didnt like the idea of hormones ivf or anything else.

Edited February 4, 2007 by bina