Pregnancies beyond the human biological fecundity – PERSPECTIVE

Fertility, fecundity & abortions Fertility and fecundity decrease as a women’s age advances [9]. The declining quality of the oocyte is the leading cause of age-related decline in fecundity. The endometrial receptivity and the chance of implantation also decrease with age [10], but this can be readily corrected by hormonal preparation [5]. Other factors such as the male partner, coital frequency, endometriosis and tubal pathologies may also coexist. The fecundity and cumulative pregnancy rates in women over the age of 35 years is decreased. In addition, the miscarriage rate increases in parallel with maternal age, up to 20–40% in perimenopausal women, mainly due to an increase in chromosomal aberrations [11]. Most of these are readily corrected when oocytes from young donors replace the aging oocytes and adequate endometrial preparation with exogenous estrogens and progestagens is provided.

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