A senior in India, who’s believed to be between 70 and 72, has just become a first-time mom.
She and her 79-year-old husband went through two years of in vitro fertilization using donor eggs, according to The Guardian.
The couple wasn’t able to afford the pricey treatment earlier in life.
“He won, and then he got this piece of land and he got the money for the treatment.”
Bishnoi added that Indian law doesn’t allow adoption after 45 years of age. The pair apparently adopted a boy in the ’80s, but he went on to study in the U.S. and reportedly never came back.
When the two approached his fertility clinic, Bishnoi admitted he was initially reluctant to help them. He was concerned about the woman’s age, plus “she looked frail.”
Medical tests apparently showed her to be fit and healthy, and he claims “the risk to her health of becoming pregnant was no higher than if she had been middle-aged.”
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After three rounds of IVF, their baby boy was born “healthy and hearty” last month, weighing in at 4.4 pounds.
Dr. Marjorie Dixon of the Anova Fertility clinic in Toronto finds the situation concerning.
Pregnancy is a huge stress on the body, she said. The older a woman is, the more chance there is of complications like hypertension, seizure, stroke and stillbirth.
Of course, there’s also the ethical and moral question.
“When they’re 83, the kid will be 10,” Dixon pointed out. “What will happen to them?”
Bishnoi told The Guardian his clients have relatives “ready to help take care of the baby.”
He helped another 70-year-old become a first-time mother in 2009.
The oldest patient Dixon helped impregnate with donor eggs was 49. Usually the IVF cut-off age in Canada is 45, she added.
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