Should women over 35 give birth naturally or through IVF?

I am 38 years old, married 2 years ago, and expecting a baby. At this age, should I do IVF or give birth naturally, doctor? (Phuong Anh, Binh Duong )

Reply:

In normal healthy women, the best ability to conceive is between the ages of 20-29. Women's ability to conceive gradually decreases over time due to the aging of the ovaries and the decline in the quantity and quality of eggs.

35 years old is an important milestone in a woman's reproductive process. From this age, a woman's ovaries decline significantly, leading to difficulty in conceiving naturally. On the other hand, the decline in ovarian quality due to age also increases the risk of genetic problems and chromosomal abnormalities. These are the reasons why children are born with mental retardation and motor disorders such as Down, Edwards, etc. At the age of 25, the rate of women at risk of giving birth to a child with Down syndrome is 1/1,250. At the age of 30, this rate increases to 1/925. From the age of 35 and up, this rate increases to 1/379, meaning that for every 379 children, one will have Down syndrome, which is a very worrying rate.

In your case, being 38 years old, married for 2 years, having regular sex and not using contraception but still not having children is a sign of infertility. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the modern assisted reproductive methods that helps infertile couples increase their chances of getting pregnant and screen for birth defects in the fetus. With the advancement of medicine, today women over 35 years old can still get pregnant and give birth to healthy children.

MSc. Dr. Giang Huynh Nhu examines and consults on treatment regimen for infertile patients at IVFTA-HCMC. Photo : Thuc Trinh

At the Reproductive Support Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, you and your spouse will receive a comprehensive reproductive health examination, assessing the causes of difficulty conceiving (causes from the wife or husband, or both).

Depending on the specific condition and the number of children you and your spouse want, the doctors will develop a parallel treatment strategy including female infertility, male infertility if both you and your spouse have abnormalities, or single treatment if only the wife or husband has problems leading to infertility. The egg collection strategy is performed when you are diagnosed with ovarian failure, with very low ovarian reserves, to create many embryos to help you increase the success rate of pregnancy and possibly freeze embryos to help you still have the opportunity to have more children later if desired.

IVFTA-HCMC owns 3 embryo culture systems, including the standard embryo culture system, the Time-lapse embryo culture system equipped with a camera to monitor the embryo development process, and the Embryoscope embryo culture system equipped with a camera and integrated AI to help embryologists observe and evaluate the embryo development process, promptly screening out abnormally divided embryos. In addition, before embryo transfer, if you and your spouse want to re-check for genetic abnormalities, embryologists will perform an embryo biopsy to help observe and select good embryos, increasing the success rate of IVF, pregnancy and healthy birth.

MSc. Dr. Giang Huynh Nhu
Director of Reproductive Support Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City

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