The sheer amount of celebrities having babies in their mid-40s gives women false hopes about their chances of conceiving later in life, experts warn.
Actress Sienna Miller, 41, is one of the latest celebrities to reveal she is becoming an older mother and is now expecting her second child.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, 53, welcomed her second child via surrogate in June, saying “it’s never too late.”
Others movie star Michelle Williams, 41, who had a baby late last year, currently pregnant Orange is New Black star Uzo Aduba and Oscar winner Hilary Swank, who gave birth to twins this year aged 48.
But fertility experts warn that such success stories give women in their 30s and 40s a false sense of security and contribute to women choosing to delay having children.
While fertilization rates vary for individual women, it is generally accepted by experts that fertility peaks when she is younger, then begins to decline in her late twenties, then declines rapidly from her mid-thirties.
A year after her first Tony Award nomination for Clyde’s, Uzo Aduba revealed she’s expecting her first child with husband Robert Sweeting
Hilary Swank showed off her growing baby bump on Instagram in February
Michelle Williams, 41, had her baby in October 2022, here he was photographed at the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival in May of that year
They noted that most women in their early 40s have only a 5 percent chance of getting pregnant per month they try.
And for people over the age of 45, the chance of a successful pregnancy drops to just 1 percent.
Doctors said celebrities often have the money to afford multiple expensive fertility treatments, out of reach for many regular couples.
Age is one of the biggest factors in determining how fertile a woman is. Experts say that women in their late 20s have the best chance of success before the chances drop rapidly from their mid-30s.
Even in vitro fertilization (IVF) – in which eggs are collected and fertilized in a laboratory before being implanted in the uterus – a process that has helped thousands of women who have failed to conceive naturally – may prove unsuccessful. may turn out.
Hopeful mothers in their early 40s have only an 11 per cent success rate through IVF, which falls to just 4 per cent in women aged 44, according to the NHS.
For this reason, the health care system usually does not recommend IVF for women over the age of 42, as the success rate is considered too low.
Dr. Tim Bracewell-Milnes, an expert in reproductive medicine from Imperial College London, told MailOnline that many hopeful mothers in their 40s will not have children naturally.
“The reality for women in their 40s trying to conceive is that the majority of them won’t be able to, especially if they’re in their mid-40s,” he said.
He warned women looking for older celebrities who enjoyed successful pregnancies that these stars were likely using specialist techniques to increase their chances.
‘When reading these articles about celebrities in their 40s having children, women should be aware that the vast majority of them will have conceived with IVF either by using their own eggs that they frozen when they were younger , or using a donor egg from a younger woman. get pregnant,” he said.
“Of course it is the right of celebrities not to disclose the nature of their conception.”
But he noted that such examples can give older women a false sense of security that they have enough time to have children naturally.
“The media attention these celebrity pregnancies are giving to the general public is currently sending a false message that could, at least in part, contribute to them delaying having children.
“Many women are currently being reassured indirectly about how easily they can get pregnant when they are older.”
He urged women who want to have children later in life to seek professional advice about their fertility, ideally before the age of 36.
The number of pregnancies among women over 40 has risen to the highest level since registration began before the turn of the century (brown line). Yet attitudes among teens have fallen over the same period, despite a slight recovery last year (grey line)
Professor Adam Balen, an expert in reproductive medicine and former president of the British Fertility Society, also warned that many older celebrity mums are using expensive egg donor treatments to boost their chances.
“A lot of celebrity conceptions are based on donor eggs, because IVF doesn’t work after 45,” he said.
He said such donor eggs, which are harvested from younger women and are more viable, can increase the chances of successful conception in an older woman by as much as 40 percent.
However, such treatments are expensive, costing at least £5,000 per round and often even more.
Hopeful older mothers not only have to deal with a reduced chance of conception.
They also run a greater risk of complications during their pregnancy.
The figures also show that the conception rate among women aged 40 and older has continued to rise and is now at an all-time high of 17.3 conceptions per 1,000 women.
Experts have previously warned that older celebrity pregnancies carry the risk of being an older mother, without highlighting these risks.
Such complications include high blood pressure and preeclampsia, birth defects, such as Down syndrome, and even miscarriage and stillbirth.
Although the individual chance of conception will vary by individual woman, about seven in ten people in their early thirties will conceive within a year of the attempt.
This falls to about six in ten among those in their mid-thirties, dropping to about four in ten when they turn forty, then falling to just one in ten among those aged 45.
Other experts, who published their research in 2021 in the journal Human Reproduction, have lowered these numbers even further.
Some argue that 19- to 26-year-olds have only a 50 percent chance of getting pregnant two days before ovulation—the most fertile time for a woman.
But this drops to 40 percent for people between the ages of 27 and 34.
After the age of 35, the women studied had only a 30 percent chance of getting pregnant in any given month.
Official data shows that more and more women want to postpone having children.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics, published in March, show that the number of pregnancies among women over 40 in 2021 will rise to the highest level since measurements began.
Of the 824,983 conceptions recorded in England and Wales, over 33,000 were of ‘older’ maternal age – the highest number ever recorded.
Experts believe that the increase in older women getting pregnant is because they are choosing to have children later in life while pursuing careers and relying on advances in IVF and other fertility treatments as relapses.
The NHS says most couples trying to have a baby should be successful within a year, but those who don’t should contact their GP for advice.