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Too old for IVF: are we discriminating against older women?

  • Symposium of the Aging Ovary
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In vitro fertilization (IVF) in women of advanced age (>42 years) represents only 5%, a comparatively minute part, of the national IVF experience in the United States (US). In view of evolving population dynamics, it, however, also represents proportionally a rather quickly expanding patient need. Because of access restrictions at many IVF programs, this market does not live up to its potential. As best demonstrated by the 2004 US National Summary and Fertility Clinic Report, which for the first time reported pregnancies and births above age 45 year, IVF in women of advanced reproductive age represents a cutting edge area of interest for improving current IVF outcomes. Access to IVF should, therefore, not be withheld based on female age and/or baseline FSH levels. Instead, a definition of acceptable minimal pregnancy and life birth rates could be used to define the limits of offered access to IVF, independent of age and/or baseline FSH levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Norbert Gleicher

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Allgemeines Krankenhaus, Vienna University School of Medicine, Vienna, Austria

    Andrea Weghofer

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    David Barad

  4. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    David Barad

  5. The Center for Human Reproduction (CHR) New York, 21 East 69th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA

    Norbert Gleicher, Andrea Weghofer & David Barad

  6. Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Norbert Gleicher & David Barad

  7. Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Norbert Gleicher & David Barad

Authors
  1. Norbert Gleicher
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  2. Andrea Weghofer
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  3. David Barad
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Correspondence to Norbert Gleicher.

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Gleicher, N., Weghofer, A. & Barad, D. Too old for IVF: are we discriminating against older women?. J Assist Reprod Genet 24, 639–644 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-007-9182-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-007-9182-1

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