Career takes precedence over marriage and family for the modern day couples. There has been a sharp increase in the number of women over 40 years of age. There has been an increase of 33% in child births to mothers over the age of 40 in the last 5 years. The older age pregnancies do come with a lot of complications such as infertility and greater chances of chromosomal abnormalities in the child.
Also, according to a study conducted by American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) the rate of miscarriage increases progressively as the women ages, from 13% in women younger than 35 years to 54% in women aged 44 years or older.
With advanced maternal age, there are many physiological changes that take place in a woman’s body which can hinder the natural conceiving process or can lead to miscarriages. Not only women, men also experience low sperm count and other impaired sperm parameters which can be associated with older age.
Couples in this case often opt for Artificial Reproductive Technologies (ART) such as In- vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is increasingly gaining popularity especially in couples who are planning their pregnancies in their late 30’s.
In case of both- the male factor infertility and advanced maternal age, the likelihood of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome also increases. Most embryos with an incorrect number of chromosomes fail to implant in an IVF process or miscarry during the first trimester of pregnancy. In many cases it can also led to multiple miscarriages.
In women over 38 years old, 79% of embryos have chromosomal abnormalities. These abnormalities can be numeric, with the most common example being that of Down syndrome (three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two), along with Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes.
However, even though chances of getting pregnant after the age of 35 decreases it does not certainly mean that it is impossible to conceive or that the intended parents will necessarily have trouble in conceiving.
Also, increasingly gaining popularity among urban women is Egg freezing. This is a solution to the age factor so that couples can conceive when they’re ready for it completely. In egg freezing technology, the egg is stored and is frozen, for years. When the woman is ready for pregnancy these eggs are used to form an embryo which is then implanted in her womb through an IVF process.
The quality of egg and sperm also decrease with age increasing the chances of chromosomal abnormalities in natural pregnancies and multiple IVF failures if the couple is opting for a pregnancy through IVF.
Couples opting for a late pregnancy can rule out possibility of a chromosomal abnormality in their baby and increase their chances of a successful pregnancy through a few reproductive genetics techniques.
Non-Invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) analyzes the most frequent chromosomal alterations with a simple blood extraction. It is completely safe for you and your baby. An expecting mother can opt for at 10thweek of pregnancy. NACE (Non-invasive Analysis for chromosomal examination) is one such test by Igenomix. NACE also provides critical fetal fraction data for your specialist. Fetal Fraction refers to the proportion of free DNA in circulation that belongs to the placenta, in relation to the total amount of free DNA in circulation found in the blood sample.
If a couple is facing repetitive IVF failures, Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and MitoScore is recommended. A study by Igenomix suggests that in the general population, 20% of all clinical pregnancies miscarry and about half of them are chromosomally abnormal. PGS with MitoScore improves reproductive success by helping the specialist to select chromosomally normal embryos which have a greater possibility of resulting in a successful and healthy pregnancy throughIVF.
Besides in case of women who are over 35 years of age PGS is also recommended in cases of couples who have experienced several spontaneous miscarriages of unknown cause, couples with several failed cycles of IVF, men with low sperm concentration and couples with a previous pregnancy with chromosomal abnormality. PGS test for aneuploidy screening avoids chromosomal abnormalities and it significantly increases the chances of successful pregnancy by 60% in IVFprocedures
The quality of the sperm is as important for a healthy embryo which can implant successfully in an IVF process. The Sperm Aneuploidy Test (SAT) is another diagnostic test to male factor infertility. This test enables estimation of the transmission risk of chromosomal abnormalities to the child. It analyzes the chromosomes mostly implicated in spontaneous miscarriages and cases of births with common chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome (also known as trisomy 21). It therefore screens the sperm sample for chromosomes abnormalities related to Trisomy13, 18 and 21 and the sex chromosomes X and Y.
