More and more modern women are starting to give birth efforts at an older age, and this is due to social, professional, economic or personal factors. The average age during which mothers give birth to their first child has grown progressively in recent years, not only in Greece but also worldwide. According to the latest data, 9.7% of all births in Greece in 2021 were made by mothers over 40 years (compared to 5.7% in Europe as a whole).

But the more the age of the woman increases, the harder the desired pregnancy comes and the more likely it is to help. This is due to various factors: (a) Reduce ovaries in the ovaries: women are born with their definitive number of eggs, they cannot create more (as opposed to what happens to sperm in men), while at the same time a huge number of eggs are lost each month to choose only one month. These losses are further accelerated after the age of 37, (b) progressive deterioration of the quality of the eggs, which relates to their affected energy potential and increased levels of oxidative stress, and (c) increased chance of creating embryos with chromosomal disorders due to the allegiance.

These ‘accidents’ occur more frequently as the woman/egg age increases due to aging procedures. Thus, at under 35 years of age 60-70% of embryos created either naturally or with IVF are chromosomal, while this percentage drops to 15% over the age of 42. Nature recognizes disturbed embryos which are either not implanted or eliminated in the first trimester of pregnancy. A minority of such embryos escapes this protective mechanism, such as Down syndrome embryos found by prenatal testing during pregnancy.

Therefore, it is obvious that women over 40 years of age not only find it difficult to become pregnant in a natural way, but also experience more failures of IVF: The majority of embryos they create has chromosomal disorders incompatible with life, and unfortunately. But what we can know is what of the embryos we have created with IVF in the laboratory is chromosomal well and to carry them only the embryos.

This is done with pre-implantation genetic control for anecdotes (PGT-A): The embryos grow in the laboratory to the blastocyst stage, few cells (up to 10) are obtained from each fetus (fetal biopsy), and the embryos enter the cryopreservation. Biopsy cells are controlled by the number of chromosomes with advanced techniques, and thus we find the integrity or not of the fetus from which they came. Then we refrigerate the normal embryos and transfer them to the uterus. A fetus with a perfect number of chromosomes is highly likely to implant (about 60-65%), while a disturbed fetus, depending on the extent of the disorder, will either not be implanted, or will be eliminated in the first trimester of pregnancy, or will proceed but will carry a serious genetic disorder.

Thus, advanced women can benefit significantly with PGT-A: not only have extremely high and immediate chances of success by transporting their healthy embryos, but most importantly, do not waste time with transfers of disturbed embryos which are doomed to failure or even worse to miscarriage, with any physical, mental and economic consequences. And as we mentioned The effect of time I am catalytic both for the quality and the number of eggs. Especially for those women who, despite their age, have sufficient egg reserves, PGT-A is a unique opportunity because the higher the number of eggs available and therefore embryos, the higher the chance of normal embryos with PGT-A, and if they are found only. It is also worth noting that in the United States of America, where cost-effectiveness is given great importance, 48% of IVF cycles in women over 40 included PGT-A ensuring high success rates. Finally, because Greece requires a license by the National Authority of Medically Assisted Reproduction for PGT-A, this license is granted to all women over 40 always and without any restrictions.

In summary, for women over 40 years of age who undergo IVF, pre -implantation genetic testing is a great opportunityboth because it ensures high success rates as long as healthy embryos is transferred, but mainly because it saves time by preventing embryo -transfers that are doomed to failure so that the woman can make a new effort immediately.