I have seen several stories over the years in entertainment magazines about celebrities getting pregnant in their 50s. Some of them say they got pregnant naturally. Is that even possible?
—Celebrity Curious
I think the answer to this question can be found in the details of the vocabulary being used. “Natural” and “naturally” do not have very specific medical meanings. With a quick reading, you might assume that the celebrity means that she and her partner conceived having vaginal intercourse.
But I don’t think it would take much mental gymnastics to defend the idea that conceiving using an egg retrieved a decade before and fertilized with her partner’s sperm is their natural child. After all, one medical definition of “natural” is a child who is not adopted or gained through marriage (a stepchild). You might also argue that conceiving with the aid of medications that promote ovulation is conceiving naturally.
But that is not really your question. Your question is whether a woman could conceive via vaginal intercourse in her 50s. If you are ovulating, you can conceive. The average age at menopause is 51.4. That means that half of women are still having periods after 51. The data suggests that about 25% of cycles longer than six months are ovulatory.
Egg quality declines with age. So does the likelihood of conceiving a viable pregnancy with those poorer-quality eggs. The oldest documented woman to conceive naturally was 58 years old at the time of conception and 59 at delivery, but obviously this is unusual.
Yes, it is possible, though not likely, to conceive without the aid of fertility treatments in your 50s. However, I also wouldn’t assume everyone defines getting pregnant “naturally” the same way.
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