Pregnancy after 40: What Are the Risks?
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Tami Roman is no stranger to television. She began in 1993, as a “Real World” cast member. Currently she is one of the five main characters on VH1’s reality series: “Basketball Wives”. But many people don’t know that she is also a model, a business woman, and that at the age of 45, she is pregnant with a child.
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Roman, who has two kids from her previous marriage to NBA player Kenny Anderson, has just announced her six-week pregnancy, at the age of 45. In an interview, she explained her desire to bare a third child in her forties. “I am in a committed relationship with a younger man who has never had children. …I decided to have a child with him and I am happy I made the decision to do so.” The man she is referring to is her current 28-year-old boyfriend, Reggie Youngblood.
While Roman revealed that she has always been fertile, for many other women over 40, they are panicking as their biological clock ticks. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Nothing is impossible. But after the age of 35, women have 10%-15% chance of becoming pregnant.
Dr. Melinda Miller-Thrasher, OB GYN of Innovative Women’s HealthCare Solutions explains why aging decreases your probability of giving birth. “Think of it this way: you are born with all the eggs you will ever have. The ‘best’ eggs those more likely to result in successful pregnancies, are the first to be recruited, leaving those less favorable eggs for last. Therefore, those eggs left as we age are less likely to result in successful pregnancies and more likely to result in miscarriages.”
Although all pregnancies carry their own risks regardless of age, a woman over the age of forty takes on additional risks. The miscarriage rate can be as high as 90% for women over forty, according to Dr. Thrasher. Other risks include chromosomal abnormalities….
