Pregnant Celebs in Their 40s Giving False Hope? Female Fertility Declines From Age 37

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The chances of having a baby through IVF for women aged 44 and above is only less than 2 percent, a new research has found.

Pregnant celebs in their 40s are giving out false hopes about having babies at their age. Experts say that many are not aware that they use In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or donor eggs to conceive.

A Spanish research has found that the chances of conceiving a baby through IVF is only 1.3 percent for women over 44 and for women ages 38 to 39, the likeliness is only 24 percent, the Guardian reports.

"Women of 44 or older should be fully informed about their real chances of a live birth and counselled in favour of egg donation," said Dr. Marta Devesa of Spain's Hospital Universitari Quirón-Dexeus.

She added that women can have a shot at conception if they freeze their eggs by age 35 or use donor eggs from younger women.

She based her remarks on a 12-year study of live birth rates of more than 4000 women in a Spanish clinic. The said study showed that there was little success for women to conceive babies when they reach 45 and above. The decline starts at 40 to 41 years old at 15.6 percent and drops to 6.6 percent in the next couple of years.

It may be hard for women in their 40s to have babies because of the decline in their fertility, and aging pregnant celebrities are not helping with the issue, according to experts. 

"If more celebrities were prepared to speak out it would do the world of fertility medicine a lot of good," said Adam Balen, of the British Fertility Society, as per Daily Mail. "'The key thing is the heartache of infertility that affects older women who haven't realised that it's not so easy to get pregnant just as soon as you wish."

He added that regardless of media reporting of celebrities who have had successful live births at an older age, it is not known how many more have not become successful due to infertility problems or fertility treatment issues.

Some experts have debated that it may be good to delay motherhood. Robert Winston, an IVF pioneer, explained that older women could be more stable mothers. But a statement from Professor Charles Kingsland of Liverpool Women's Hospital countered that while there are reasons why women delay motherhood, it does not change the fact the fertility declines by the time they reach 30.

Some celebrities who have been open about their late pregnancies include Nicole Kidman, who was 43 when a surrogate gave birth to her second daughter. Model Caprice also gave birth through surrogacy when she was in her early 40s. Mariah Carey was 41 when she had twins through IVF.