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What is the best treatment option for infertile women aged 40 and over?

  • ASSISTED REPRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To summarise the causes of decreased fecundity with age and review chronological vs biological ovarian ageing. To explore the clinician’s means of assessing a woman’s ovarian reserve. To review the recent literature on the effectiveness of different assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques for women aged 40 and over and offer a single best treatment option.

Methods

Pubmed and google scholar were searched for relevant articles using key words. Data were extracted based on authors, year, aims, sample and results.

Results

Success rates for women aged 40 or over with clomiphene, IUI, IUI with FSH are all extremely low, at less than 1 % live birth per cycle. However, IVF offers a success rate of around 13.7 % per cycle.

Conclusion

An exploration of the effectiveness of available treatment options for older infertile women using their own gametes suggests that IVF offers the best prospects of success. Attempting treatments other than IVF will delay conception unnecessarily.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol, UK

    Sarah Armstrong

  2. Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM), Southmead Hospital, Bristol, UK

    Valentine Akande

  3. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Valentine Akande

Authors
  1. Sarah Armstrong
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  2. Valentine Akande
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Armstrong.

Additional information

Capsule

The single best treatment option for infertile women = 40, using their own gametes, is IVF. Trying other fertility treatments will delay the chance of conceiving unnecessarily.

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Armstrong, S., Akande, V. What is the best treatment option for infertile women aged 40 and over?. J Assist Reprod Genet 30, 667–671 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-9980-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-9980-6

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