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And the clock is ticking: when the ovaries run out of “expiration date”
Does he exist at all? Does everyone have the same or does everyone have their own? Let’s figure it out together with an expert.
The famous adage “the clock is ticking,” which so annoys most modern women, unfortunately reflects the harsh reality: our reproductive capabilities – in other words, the ability to conceive, bear and give birth to a healthy child – decreases over time. Does this mean that by a certain age you need to forget about your career and hobbies and urgently address issues of motherhood?
Reproductologist, chief physician and general director of the Moscow clinic Remedi
Fact one. Biological
The number of eggs in women is indeed limited and does not change linearly throughout life. A newborn girl has a reserve of up to 2 million follicles, from which eggs can potentially develop, but by the beginning of puberty, about 400 thousand of them remain. After 35 years, the rate of depletion of their supply – the ovarian reserve – becomes very high. By about 40 years, the number of follicles reaches a critical value for the possibility of conception – 25 thousand. Then, after the final depletion of the reserve, the follicles cease to ripen, ovulate, the reproductive functions of the ovaries gradually fade away: menopause begins.
The second fact. Genetic
Any person, alas, grows old, and this process is determined by genetic mechanisms: mutations, DNA damage, mitochondrial “fatigue” – these are the kind of “energy stations” of any cells that ensure their proper restoration and growth, and many others. Aging processes are nonlinear and accelerate sharply after 35 years.
“Research shows,” explains Elena Mladova– that the proportion of such “defective” germ cells (aneuploid oocytes, as scientists say) increases significantly with age. After 40 years, their number can exceed 80% – it is clear that this significantly reduces the likelihood of pregnancy. In other words, after a certain age, only 1–2 embryos out of 10 will have the correct set of chromosomes and a chance to develop into a healthy child ”.
Fact three. Social
In English-speaking sociology, there is a concept of “punishment for motherhood.” It means that having a child can lead to a 15% loss in wages due to missed career opportunities. Not all of us are ready to make such sacrifices – only in Russia, over the past 30 years, the period before the birth of the first child from the moment of marriage has almost doubled, from nine months to one and a half years, and the age of the mother with the appearance of the first child – from 22 to 26 years and continues to increase.
Fact four. Technological
Reproductive technologies that allow you to technically separate the processes of fertilization and gestation, … Over the years, they have reached significant heights. One of the “side” effects of this development was the technology of delayed pregnancy, which allows the ill-fated “watch” to be paused. This is cryopreservation – a method of deep freezing of healthy eggs (including fertilized eggs) taken in advance, at maximum fertility, which makes it possible to plan a pregnancy for years in advance. At the same time, the successful release of eggs from freezing reaches 90%, and of embryos – 99,9%, that is, almost all biomaterial is viable and ready to develop, and the success of IVF in this case can exceed 45% (it will be possible to get pregnant with one or two attempts).
The method turned out to be so successful that several years ago global corporations began to include it in the social package of their employees: since 2014, three IT giants – Facebook, Apple and Google – have taken the cost of egg cryopreservation on themselves if women decided to focus on professional and career development. (thereby bringing additional profit to the employer).
Fact five. Financial
Does it make sense to postpone the birth of a child? In principle, this is countable. Taking into account the absence of “punishment for motherhood” in the horizon of 10-15 years, the incomes of highly qualified specialists, both men and women, are approximately the same (one can estimate the average size and growth of wages for a particular profession). And the cost of cryopreservation in Russia on average is estimated at about 200 thousand rubles, of which about 50 thousand goes to pay for the storage of eggs in a cryobank for five years. An IVF attempt with healthy embryos is estimated at 100–150 thousand rubles, and in some cases the procedure can be done under a policy.
True, late motherhood has its additional disadvantages, like early motherhood. Therefore, no doctor will advise you to delay the birth of a child. But if the situation is objectively such that there is no way to give birth right now, then postponed motherhood can be a real salvation.
By the way
The real propagandists of “deferred motherhood” are the stars. Alla Pugacheva, for example, froze her eggs when she married Philip Kirkorov. Thanks to this decision, she and Maxim Galkin had lovely twins Harry and Lisa.
Not so long ago, Anna Semenovich announced the “freeze”. According to her, this decision allowed the 40-year-old singer to finally get rid of the pressure of society about the birth of children and endless “well, when?”
And who else from the stars has resorted to this practice – see our photo gallery.