We know that there are many factors that affect the success of IVF treatments. These affect the results with varying degrees of severity. As you can read in many places and hear from doctors, the woman's age is the most important of these variables.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35NdOGKS0OA So how does a woman's age affect her fundamentally? As we …
We know that there are many factors that affect the success of IVF treatments. These affect the results with varying degrees of severity. As you can read in many places and hear from doctors, the woman’s age is the most important of these variables.
So how does a woman's age affect her fundamentally?
As we first think, it is not just by causing a decrease in the number of eggs. This is also important but not the basic element. As age increases, the probability of problems during egg formation increases, and the probability of egg chromosomes being problematic increases. To give an example, approximately 70% of the eggs produced by a 40-year-old woman have a chromosome problem. This is reflected in the treatment results as fewer pregnancies, an increase in the rate of miscarriages, and an increase in problems such as Down syndrome in ongoing pregnancies.
What can be done in this case?
Although there is no clear distinction like black and white, the path to be followed can be roughly determined according to the woman’s ovarian reserve. Of course, it is also possible to achieve success with the traditional ‘collect eggs and perform fresh transfer’ method. However, if we want to exceed the chances that this method will provide, we need to use some special methods. I will not mention the techniques that are still in the experimental stage here.
If the ovarian reserve is good, chromosome screening of the embryos (PGS, PGT) should be considered first. The general logic is as follows: If we have a large number of embryos, we may have difficulty choosing the best ones just by looking at their images. At this point, we get help from comprehensive genetic tests to be performed on the embryos and determine with high reliability which embryo has the potential to create a healthy baby. This means that our probability of having a healthy baby increases with each transfer we make. It also creates less wear on the couple in terms of psychology, physics and money.
If the ovarian reserve is low, creating an embryo pool increases the pregnancy rates per transfer. Instead of having a single embryo and transferring it, choosing the best one among 5 embryos, for example, is responsible for this increase. In order to reach this chance, it is necessary to collect two or more eggs and freeze the embryos and save them. It is more advantageous in terms of psychology and money compared to the collect-transfer method each time. It should not go without saying that: Even if the couple has only one embryo, it is possible to perform a chromosome test on the embryo of suitable quality. In addition to all these, it should not be forgotten that there is an upper limit for the woman’s age in in vitro fertilization treatments.
