Akosua Budu Amoako and her husband had been trying to have a child over their almost four decades of marriage. Some couples would have lost hope, but after many years of attempting to get pregnant, 59-year-old Budu finally delivered a baby last month.
Nearly Four Decades Of Attempting To Bear A Child
After fertility treatments, Budu carried to full-term and delivered the baby on June 15. The 7-pound and 4-ounce baby boy, who was named after his father, Isaiah Somuah Anim, was born at Bellevue Woman's Center.
Budu related that she had been trying to get pregnant naturally since her marriage 38 years ago. The couple have stopped trying but last year, after learning that a 60-year-old woman in Ghana gave birth to triplets with the help of fertility treatment, the couple, who are both medical professionals, decided once again to try having a child.
Khushru Irani, the doctor who delivered the baby, said that he was initially apprehensive of the idea given the risk of complications that may arise from giving birth at an advanced age.
"But they were very insistent and they wanted to try it out,"Irani said.
Odds For Successful In Vitro Fertilization
Budu had in vitro fertilization using her husband's sperm and a donor egg. IVF is a type of assisted reproductive technology (ART), which involves manually combining sperm and egg in a lab dish and transferring the fertilized egg to the uterus of a woman.
The success rate of this procedure varies depending on several factors such as the family history of the couple, lifestyle factors, and age. Younger women have higher odds for successful IVF. The chances of live birth from the procedure in women under 35 years old are about 41 percent, which is significantly higher than the 13 to 18 percent live birth rate in women who are more than 40 years old.
Costly And Long Process
The process does not come cheap with costs starting at $12,000. For Budu and her husband, the process of initial screening to successful fertilization took about a year and cost $20,000. The procedure may also come with risks particularly in older women.
"If you have IVF, you have a slightly higher risk of an ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo implants in the fallopian tubes rather than in the womb," reads the NHS Choice site. "In addition, the risk of miscarriage and birth defects increases with the age of the woman having IVF treatment."
