Source: CNN - This month, actress Kelly Preston announced that she was pregnant at the age of 47, prompting TV talk show discussions about the marvels of modern medicine that allowed Preston and her husband, actor John Travolta, to have a baby so late in life.
But 47 -- that's nothing. Compared with some other women, Preston's practically a baby.
Last year, Dr. David Kreiner, a reproductive endocrinologist in New York, helped a woman have a baby at 54. Dr. Jamie Grifo, also in New York, recently helped a woman get pregnant at age 55.
Both doctors say these days, it's not that difficult to get pregnant in your late 40s or early 50s -- as long as you have two things: someone else's eggs and at least $16,000 or so.
"Most women can get pregnant with donor eggs," said Kreiner, the medical director of East Coast Fertility in Plainview, New York. "The only reason you wouldn't be able to is if you have problems with your uterus, such as scarring or fibroids we can't operate on. But only about 1 to 5 percent of women have those problems."
So with donor eggs, could a woman get pregnant at, say, age 80?
"Theoretically, one would think there's no age limit," Kreiner said. "But it hasn't been tested."
Preston, who hasn't said whether she conceived naturally or with the help of donor eggs or any other form of technology, joins a list of celebrities who became pregnant in their mid- to late 40s. According to People magazine, actresses Geena Davis had a baby at age 46, Beverly D'Angelo at 49, Marcia Cross at 44 and supermodel Iman at 45. Actress Holly Hunter had twins at 47.
When celebrities get pregnant late in life, women sometimes assume they got pregnant naturally, reproductive endocrinologists say.
"They come in and say, 'Well, so-and-so got pregnant, and she's 47. My husband and I have been trying for so long. Why can't I get pregnant?' " said Dr. Hilton Kort, founder of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, Georgia. "I try to explain to them, we don't know how that celebrity got pregnant."
It's highly unusual for a woman to get pregnant on her own after age 45. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008 there were 0.7 births per 1,000 women ages 45 to 49, compared with 9.9 births per 1,000 women ages 44 to 40.
Here are some questions and answers about having a baby that late in life.
Like Kelly Preston, I'm 47. What are my chances of getting pregnant naturally?
Slim to none, doctors say.
"Spontaneous pregnancy [rates for] someone 47 is VERY low," Kort wrote in an e-mail, explaining that your chances of conceiving naturally at that age are less than 5 percent each month, and the miscarriage rate in the first trimester is 70 to 80 percent.
"It's not impossible that someone aged 47 [got pregnant] without assistance, but it's highly unlikely," he adds.
What are my chances of getting pregnant at age 47 if I use in-vitro fertilization and my own eggs?
"Success with IVF at this age with patient's own eggs is practically unheard of," said Kreiner, of East Coast Fertility.
The odds are so low that Kort highly discourages women that age from even attempting IVF with their own eggs.
"Forty-three is pretty much my cutoff for IVF with a woman's own eggs. Occasionally, I'll do it at 44," he said. "The success rate is under 5 percent. When I explain this to women, they don't even want to try."
What are my chances of getting pregnant at age 47 if I use IVF and donor eggs?
Kort says he has a 70 percent to 75 percent success rate when women in their mid- to late 40s use donor eggs.
Grifo, who used donor eggs to get his 56-year-old patient pregnant, says he has a 55 percent to 60 percent success rate with donor eggs. He says his patient was due in mid-April, but the woman hasn't contacted him to say whether she had the baby.
How much does it cost to get pregnant with donor eggs?
It costs $20,000 to $30,000 per attempt to get pregnant with donor eggs at the New York University Fertility Center, where Grifo is the program director. Read more at CNN.
