Pregnancy over age 50

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Pregnancy over the age of 50 has become possible for more women because of advances in assisted reproductive technology, in particular egg donation. Typically, a woman's fecundity ends with menopause, which, by definition, is 12 consecutive months without any menstrual flow at all. During perimenopause, the menstrual cycle and the periods become irregular and eventually stop altogether. The female biological clock can vary greatly from woman to woman. A woman's individual level of fertility can be tested through a variety of methods.^[1]

In the United States, between 1997 and 1999, 539 births were reported among mothers over age 50 (four per 100,000 births), with 194 being over 55.^[2]

The oldest recorded mother to date to conceive was 74 years. According to statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in the UK more than 20 babies are born to women over age 50 per year through in vitro fertilization with the use of donor oocytes (eggs).^[3]

Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara formerly held the record of oldest verified mother; she was aged 66 years 358 days when she gave birth to twins, 130 days older than Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in 2005 to a baby girl. In both cases, the children were conceived through IVF with donor eggs.^[4] The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally (listed currently as of 26 January 2017^[update] in the Guinness Records^[5]) is Dawn Brooke (Guernsey); she conceived a son at the age of 59 in 1997.^[6]

Erramatti Mangamma, who gave birth at the age of 73 through in-vitro fertilisation via caesarean section in the city of Hyderabad, India, currently holds the record for being the oldest living mother. She delivered twin baby girls, making her also the oldest mother to give birth to twins.^[7] The previous record for being the oldest living mother was held by Daljinder Kaur Gill from Amritsar, India, who gave birth to a baby boy at age 72 through in-vitro fertilisation.