"Chapter 59: Fertility, Conception, and Childbirth in Women of Mature Reproductive Age"

Parnell T

Longevity and Reproductive Aging · Age and Fertility

"Chapter 59: Fertility, Conception, and Childbirth in Women of Mature Reproductive Age"

Parnell T

The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY, 803-812, 2004

RRM Academy Synopsis

NaProTECHNOLOGY pregnancies after age 35 had lower preterm birth rates

NaProTECHNOLOGY pregnancies after age 35 had lower preterm birth rates than IVF studies reported, according to a textbook chapter that analyzes outcomes among women 35 and older in an Ireland database. The chapter also reports lower low birth weight and multiple pregnancy rates than IVF. It proposes that changes in brain hormone signaling may contribute to age-related infertility.

Key Findings

In the Ireland database, women 35 and older who conceived with NaProTECHNOLOGY had preterm birth, low birth weight and multiple pregnancy rates below the IVF ranges the chapter cites.
Preterm birth and low birth weight rates in that group also fell below the UK norms the chapter lists for the general population.
Cited IVF studies of all-age populations reported rates of 22.0 to 56.0% for multiple pregnancy, 17.8 to 28.6% for preterm birth before 37 weeks, and 23.8 to 36.4% for low birth weight.
Women 38 and older with no previous IVF had live birth rates similar to the overall NaProTECHNOLOGY study population, and women with previous IVF had lower rates.
A 2004 BMJ systematic review of controlled studies, cited in the chapter, found that singleton pregnancies after assisted reproduction had significantly worse perinatal outcomes than unassisted ones.

RRM Context

Restorative reproductive medicine approaches reduced fertility in the thirties and forties as a question for diagnosis, and RRM clinicians evaluate both partners before attributing the result to age alone. They may look for ovulatory, hormonal and structural problems in each. NaProTECHNOLOGY, developed by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, puts this principle into practice with cycle charting and a work-up of the underlying reproductive problem. The chapter describes IVF as bypassing those problems and NaProTECHNOLOGY as correcting them. That places the focus on the cause of lower fertility in each couple.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract

This chapter examines the challenges to fertility and childbirth faced by women in their thirties and forties and the evidence that NaProTECHNOLOGY can address physiologic abnormalities contributing to infertility and perinatal difficulties in this group. For women aged 35 and older in an Irish database, the chapter reports a preterm birth rate of 5.9 percent, a low birth weight rate of 4.6 percent and a multiple pregnancy rate of 3.3 percent. Setting these rates against ranges from four international population studies of IVF births, the chapter concludes that multiple pregnancy, preterm birth and low birth weight rates were significantly lower in the women treated with NaProTECHNOLOGY. Drawing on theories of reproductive aging, the chapter proposes that hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction contributes to age-related infertility and describes ART as circumventing the underlying dysfunction that NaProTECHNOLOGY seeks to correct.

Topics

Longevity and Reproductive Aging › Age and Fertility › Advanced Maternal Age · Restorative Reproductive Medicine › NaProTechnology › Program Outcomes · Fertility Awareness › Effectiveness › Comparative Effectiveness

Tracey A Parnell

T Parnell

Parnell et al. 2004, Parnell 2004

"Chapter 59: Fertility, Conception, and Childbirth in Women of Mature Reproductive Age"

NaProTECHNOLOGY pregnancies after age 35 had lower preterm birth rates

Key Findings

RRM Context

Abstract

Topics

By this author

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