Pregnancy Over Age 50
Pregnancy over the age of 50 has, over recent years, become possible for more women, and more easily achieved for many, due to recent advances in assisted reproductive technology, in particular egg donation. Typically, a woman's fecundity ends with menopause, which, by definition, is 12 consecutive months without having had any menstrual flow at all. During perimenopause, the menstrual cycle and the periods become irregular and eventually stop altogether, but even when periods are still regular, the egg quality of women in their forties is lower than in younger women, making the likelihood of conceiving a healthy baby also reduced, particularly after age 42. The female biological clock can vary greatly from woman to woman. A woman's individual level of fertility can be tested through a variety of methods.
Men also experience a decline in fertility as they age. Male fertility drops gradually and steadily; the average time to pregnancy if both partners are under 25 is just over 4.5 months but nearly two years if a man is over 40 (and the woman is under 25). The risk of genetic defects is greatly increased due to the paternal age effect. Children with fathers aged 40 or older are more than five times as likely to have an autism spectrum disorder than children fathered by men aged under 30. Researchers estimate that compared to a male fathering a child in his early 20s, there is double the chance of the child getting schizophrenia when the father is age 40, and triple the risk of schizophrenia when the father is age 50 (though, for most people this means the risk goes from approximately 1 in 121 when a man is 29, to 1 in 47 when a man is age 50 to 54). The volume and fecundity of a man's semen quality and sperm motility (the ability of sperm to move towards an egg) decrease continually between the ages of 20 and 80. The incidence of dwarfism and miscarriage also increases as men age.
In the United States, between 1997 and 1999, 539 births were reported among mothers over age 50 (four per 100,000 births), with 194 being over 55.
The oldest recorded mother to date to conceive was 74 years, and the youngest mother was 5 years old. According to statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in the UK more than 20 babies are born to women over age 50 per year through in-vitro fertilization with the use of donor oocytes (eggs).
Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara is the oldest verified mother; she was aged 66 years 358 days when she gave birth to twins; she was 130 days older than Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in 2005 to a baby girl. In both cases the children were conceived through IVF with donor eggs. The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally (listed currently as of 26 January 2017[update] in the Guinness Records) is Dawn Brooke (Guernsey); she conceived a son at the age of 59 years in 1997.
Erramatti Mangamma currently holds the record for being the oldest living mother at the age of 74 after conceiving through the process of in-vitro fertilisation via caesarean in Guntur town of Hyderabad. She delivered twin baby girls. In fact, she also became the oldest mother to give birth to twins. The previous record for being the oldest living mother was held by Mrs Daljinder Kaur Gill from Amritsar, Punjab, India who gave birth to a baby boy in her 70s, after 46 years of marriage. She took treatment at a Fertility Clinic for 2 years after which she conceived with IVF.
Medical considerations
The risk of pregnancy complications increases as the mother's age increases. Risks associated with childbearing over the age of 50 include an increased incidence of gestational diabetes, hypertension, delivery by caesarean section, miscarriage, preeclampsia, and placenta previa. In comparison to mothers between 20 and 29 years of age, mothers over 50 are at almost three times the risk of low birth weight, premature birth, and extremely premature birth; their risk of extremely low birth weight, small size for gestational age, and fetal mortality was almost double.
Cases of pregnancy over age 50
Age of mother | Date | Mother | Father | Nature of conception | Country | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50 years | 1865 | Ann Barlow | Unidentified Mitchell (her husband) | Natural conception | United Kingdom | According to family records - Gave birth to Mary Mitchell at the age of 50 in 1865. |
50 years | 1847 | Christina Potts Moore | William Moore (her husband) | Natural conception | United States | According to family records - Gave birth to Samuel Hensell Moore at the age of 50 in 1847. |
50 years | 1858 | Catherine Elizabeth Rowe Dibble | Isaac Dibble, her husband | Natural conception | United States | According to birth certificates, Catherine Elizabeth Rowe Dibble, the daughter of German Andrew Raue, gave birth to Julia Rowe at age 50, in Greensburg, PA. |
50 years | 1960 | Mrs. L. | Her husband | Natural conception | USSR | The 'Book of Records of Ukraine. Man and Society. In the world of science and technology' by Matsenko G.O., reports, at page 18, the case of Mrs. L., a resident of Pidvolochysk, Ternopil oblast, south-east of the country, happy to have had a baby at age 50. |
50 years | July 1996 | Judy Bershak | David Cook, her 31-year-old husband, General Attorney Assistant of California | IVF with oocytes donation | United States | Judy Bershak of Los Angeles, California, gave birth to her first child, daughter Sarah, in 1996 at the age of 50. Bershak got married at the age of 44, and after failing in conceiving naturally and adopting, she went through IVF treatment with oocyte donation and became pregnant after first attempt. |
50 years | February 1997 | Cheryl Fillippini | Robert Fillippini, her 49-year-old husband | IVF | United States | Cheryl Fillippini of Lompoc, California, gave birth to quadruplets, three girls, Rebecca, Amanda, and Sydney, and a boy, Robert, on February 20, 1997, by Caesarean section, in Santa Barbara, at the age of 50, after IVF treatment. Fillippini and her husband had 10 children altogether from their previous marriages, but wanted to have a child together. |
50 years | April 2001 | Tsuya Otake | Hisatoshi Shiraishi, her husband | Natural conception | United States | Tsuya Otake gave birth to a daughter, Ashima Shiraishi, who would become a world class rock climber. |
50 years | May 2010 | Heather Elizabeth Parisi | Umberto Maria Anzolin, her 42-year-old third husband, contractor | Natural conception | Italy | Heather Elizabeth Parisi, Italian-American singer and actress, already mother of two daughters of her previous unions, Rebecca Jewel Manenti, 16, and Jacqueline Lune di Giacomo, 10, gave birth on May 22, 2010, in Vicenza, Italy, to twins, a girl and a boy, Elizabeth Jaden and Dylan Maria, naturally conceived with her 42-year-old third husband contractor, Umberto Maria Anzolin. |
50 years | June 2010 | Svetlana Krupenik | Her 62-year-old husband | IVF | Ukraine | Svetlana Krupenik gave birth to a girl in Kyiv, Ukraine, in June 2010, at the age of 50, after IVF treatment. She and her 62-year-old husband were trying to conceive for 30 years. |
50 years | August 2010 | Aggie Ezekiel | Wilson Brown, her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | Post-menopausal IVF | Canada | Aggie Ezekiel of Edmonton, Alberta, already a mother of three adult daughters with her husband Johnny Ezekiel, gave birth in August 2010 to her own granddaughter Clare at the age of 50 years and 9 months. She chose to act as a surrogate mother for her daughter, Tinna (age 28), who happened to be born without a uterus and had one of her ovaries removed at the age of 21. Aggie had been premenopausal for two years and could not produce the child herself, so she had to undergo fertilization hormone to boost her menstrual cycles so that the matrix can accommodate two to seven eggs retrieved by her daughter and fertilized in vitro with the sperm from her daughter's partner, Wilson Brown. One of the two implanted embryos happened to appear in a lateral position in Aggie's uterus as a result of which she delivered her granddaughter through caesarean section. The girl weighed 8.69 lb (3.94 kg) and did not breathe on her own. As a result, she was placed on an oxygen machine for an hour to clear her lungs. Tinna and Wilson separated shortly before the birth of their daughter. The young biological mother decided to bring the child to Fort McMurray, 330 km north-east of Edmonton with her husband, Sean Noseworthy. |
50 years | January 2011 | Seiko Noda | Her partner | IVF | Japan | Japanese politician Seiko Noda gave birth to a boy in Tokyo conceived through in vitro fertilization. After years of unsuccessful fertility treatments and several miscarriages, Noda decided to receive assistance from an American egg donor. |
50 years | June 2011 | Anthea Nicholas | Peter Byrnes, her 54-year-old husband | Natural conception | Australia | Anthea Nicholas, from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, is believed to be the oldest primigravida having naturally conceived in Australia. Anthea and her husband Peter were told in 2006 that they could not have children. As a result of a medical concern, in 2010, Peter researched and developed a personal diet and health regime which enabled him to return to perfect health and subsequently corrected a sperm imperfection, which, within months of his recovery, resulted in the completely unexpected pregnancy of Anthea, while she presented then clinical signs of menopause. Anthea gave birth to her son, Nicholas Jay, on June 15, 2011. |
50 years | December 2013 | Tina Malone | Paul Chase, her husband | IVF | United Kingdom | English actress Tina Malone gave birth to a baby girl in December 2013 at the age of 50, after IVF treatment. |
50 years | July 2015 | Sophie B. Hawkins | Unknown | IVF | United States | American singer Sophie B. Hawkins gave birth to a baby girl named Esther Ballantine Hawkins on July 7, 2015, at the age of 50, after IVF treatment. |
50 years | January 2017 | Janet Jackson | Wissam Al Mana, her husband | Natural conception | United States | |
50 years | April 2018 | Tammy Duckworth | Bryan Bowlsbey, her husband | IVF | United States | American politician Tammy Duckworth gave birth to her second child, a girl named Maile, in April 2018, at the age of 50, after IVF treatment. |
50 years | August 2018 | Rachael Harris | Christian Hebel, her husband | Natural conception | United States | |
50 years | October 2018 | Tracey Britten | Steven, her husband | IVF | United Kingdom | Tracey Britten, 50, gave birth to twin girls, another baby girl and a boy via caesarean section in October 2018, after IVF treatment, becoming Britain's oldest mother of quadruplets. |
50 years | December 2018 | Michele Hall | Jerry Hall, her husband | Natural conception | United States | Michele Hall of Golden Gate, Florida, already a mother of 4, gave birth in December 2018 to a baby boy, Grayson Matthew, at the age of 50. |
51 years | 1988 | Irina | Her husband | Natural conception | Russia | Irina had an accident at the age of 25 and was told by the doctors that she was unable to have children. Later she married, and after many years of marriage eventually became pregnant and gave birth to her only son at the age of 51 in 1988. |
51 years | 1991 | Edith Jones | Her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United Kingdom | Edith Jones gave birth to her granddaughter in 1991, at the age of 51, acting as a surrogate mother for her daughter Suzanne Langston, who was born without a womb. |
51 years | March 1997 | Adrienne Barbeau | Billy Van Zandt, her husband | Natural conception | United States | American actress Adrienne Barbeau gave birth to twin sons, Walker Steven and William Dalton, on March 17, 1997, at the age of 51. After marrying Billy Van Zandt in 1992 she started trying to have a child, tried in vitro fertilization unsuccessfully, but later became pregnant naturally. |
51 years | 2000 | Elizabeth Edwards | John Edwards, her husband, former U.S. Senator and Vice Presential nominee | IVF with oocytes donation supposed | United States | Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the former U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards, gave birth to son Jack in 2000 at the age of 51. The couple decided to have more children after one of their two children—a 16-year-old son—was killed in a car accident in 1996. Mrs. Edwards had also had a daughter, Emma Claire, at the age of 49. Some fertility experts believe she used donor's oocytes; Elizabeth Edwards remained silent on this question. |
51 years | July 2001 | Unidentified | Her second husband | IVF with oocytes donation | Ukraine | 51-year-old woman gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, in Kyiv, Ukraine in July 2001, after IVF treatment with oocytes donation. She decided to have children at such a late age after getting married for the second time. |
51 years | November 2020 | Julie Loving | Her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United States | Julie Loving decided to step in and become a gestational surrogate for her daughter Breanna Lockwood, who is infertile. |
51 years | August 2001 | Morgan Zantua | Georges Zantua, her 57-year-old second husband | Natural conception | United States | Morgan Zantua, of Tacoma, Washington, gave birth to her first child, daughter Auriel, on August 1, 2001, in Los Angeles, at the age of 51. She was married a second time at age 44, had a miscarriage and decided not to try to have children, and then unexpectedly found out she was pregnant at age 51. |
51 years | December 2006 | Sarajean Grainson | David Grainson, her second husband, former priest | IVF with oocytes donation | United States | Sarajean Grainson of Long Island, New York, gave birth to a son, Luke, in December 2006 at the age of 51, after IVF treatment with oocytes donation. Grainson and her second husband David, former priest, had twins, Matthew and David, in June 2008. Sarajean Grainson also had three adult children from her first marriage. |
51 years | 28" style="display:none;"> September 2007 | Rosinete Palmeira Serrão | Her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | Brazil | Rosinete Palmeira Serrão gave birth to her own twin grandsons, Antonio Bento and Vitor Gabriel, at a hospital in Recife, Brazil, on September 28, 2007 at the age of 51, after choosing to act as a gestational surrogate for her 27-year-old daughter, Claudia Michelle Serrão Pereira, who had tried to become pregnant for four years. Under Brazilian law, a surrogate mother is required to be one's close relative, so Serrao volunteered because Claudia had no sisters. The children were conceived through artificial insemination using Claudia's eggs and her husband's sperm. |
51 years | December 2009 | Anita Makhtur | Her husband, Indian origin as her | IVF with her own unfrozen oocytes | India | Anita Makhtur, previously childless Indian woman, gave birth to twin boys in December 2009, at the age of 51, after IVF treatment. She was unable to get pregnant for 23 years because of fibroma uteri and had two unsuccessful IVF tries. She is probably the oldest woman who had IVF using her own unfrozen oocytes. |
51 years | October 2012 | Naomi Gryn | Pete, her partner | IVF | United Kingdom | English writer and filmmaker Naomi Gryn, daughter of British Reform rabbi and broadcaster Hugo Gryn, gave birth to her first child, a daughter Sadie Inez Liberty Joy, at UCLH on October 31, 2012, at the age of 51, after IVF treatment. |
51 years | 2013 | Rashmi Verma | Her husband, Mr. A. K. Verma | IVF | India | Mrs (Dr.) Rashmi Verma gave birth to a daughter (Lalli) in Delhi India in 2013 at the age of 51. Mrs. Rashmi Verma and her husband decided to go through fertility treatment after accidental death of their only child Amritanshu Verma. |
51 years | 2015 | Sebastiana Maria da Conceicao | Her husband | Natural conception | Brazil | Sebastiana Maria da Conceicao, gave birth to her 21st child in the city of Aracaju, Brazil in May 2015, at the age of 51. The little boy joined the family of 10 brothers and 10 sisters, of whom 18 were alive. "I had my first son when I was 13, I was still a child, I didn’t know much. But after, at an older age, I started to have one after the other," Sebastiana said. |
51 years | June 2018 | Julia Zhabyko | Evgenij Zhabyko, her 53-year-old husband | IVF | Russia | Julia Zhabyko, gave birth to triplets, two sons and a daughter, in Vladivostok, Russia in June 2018, at the age of 51, after IVF treatment. |
52 years | November 1999 | Helen Schermerhorn Morris | Martin Scorsese, her husband | Natural conception | United States | Helen Morris was 52 when she gave birth to her daughter Francesca in November 1999. |
52 years | October 2001 | Annie Leibovitz | Anonymous sperm donor | Natural conception | United States | American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz was 52 when she gave birth to her daughter Sarah in October 2001. |
52 years | 28" style="display:none;"> August 2003 | Lyudmila Belyavskaya | Aleksandr Belyavsky, her husband, Russian actor | Natural conception | Russia | Lyudmila Belyavskaya, second wife of Russian actor Aleksandr Belyavsky, gave birth to her first child, daughter Alexandra, in Moscow, Russia, on August 28, 2003, at the age of 52, after a natural conception. |
52 years | May 2007 | Unidentified | Her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with oocytes donation (gestational surrogate) | Greece | 52-year-old woman gave birth to her own twin grandchildren in Greece in May 2007, after choosing to act as a gestational surrogate, by IVF with oocytes donation, for her infertile daughter. Under the laws of Greece, a surrogate mother is required to be under 50, but in this case an exception was made. |
52 years | June 2008 | Karen Johnston | Roger Johnston, her 53-year-old husband | IVF | United Kingdom | Karen Johnston of Bicester, England, gave birth to a girl, Willow, in June 2008, at the age of 52, after undergoing IVF treatment in Czech Republic. She was already a mother of 7, always alternating boy and girl also —Daniel (33), Jemma (28), Scott (27), Amy (26), Aiden (17), Bethany (14), Joseph (13), and had a set of twins — Imogen and Asa — in July 2010 also after IVF treatment in the same Czech clinic. |
52 years | January 2011 | Catherine Colonges | Alain Colonges, her 51-year-old husband | Natural conception | France | Catherine Colonges, French woman from Togo, of Limogne-en-Quercy, Lot, France, gave birth to triplets, a girl Léonore, and two boys, Elian and Alexis, in Toulouse, France, at the age of 52, after conceiving naturally with her husband Alain. Mrs Colonges already has a 30-year-old and a 27-year-old son, a 15-year-old daughter and three grandchildren. |
52 years | October 2012 | Shakuntala Devi | Ramjit Raghav, her 96-year-old husband | Natural conception | India | Shakuntala Devi from India gave birth to her second son at the age of 52, after conceiving naturally with her husband Ramjit Raghav, aged 96. She gave birth to her first child in 2010 at the age of 50. |
52 years | July 2019 | Lilian Chan Lai-lai | Brian Wong Chak-fung | , her 52-year-old husbandNatural conception | Hong Kong | |
52 years, 4 months | June 1757 | Julienne Despeignes Blouin | Pierre Blouin, her 61-year-old husband | Natural conception | France | Julienne Despeignes wife Blouin, French woman from Ercé-en-Lamée, in Brittany, 35 km south Rennes, France, born on February 13, 1705, gave birth to her last daughter, Magdelaine, on June 11, 1757, at the age of 52 years and almost 4 months, after conceiving naturally with her husband Pierre. Mrs Blouin born Despeignes had already had 12 children, of which, at 44 years, in February 1749, before having two others, at 45 and 49 years, two twins of opposite sex, as she herself had a twin brother. |
53 years | November 1992 | Mary Shearing | Don Shearing, her 32-year-old second husband | IVF with oocytes donation | United States | Mary Shearing, a 53-year-old Californian woman, former amateur body builder, became pregnant with the help of medical technology in New York, New York, after marrying 7 years earlier Don Shearing, a 21 years younger man. She gave birth on November 10, 1992 to about 12 weeks premature twin girls, at Martin Luther Hospital. The first baby, Amy Leigh, born naturally, was 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Her sister, Kelly Ann, born by Caesarean section, weighed 2 pounds, 12.5 ounces. |
53 years | 28" style="display:none;"> December 1992 | Geraldine Wesolowski | Her son (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter-in-law's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United States | Geraldine Wesolowski of New York, New York, gave birth to her own grandson Matthew on December 28, 1992 at the age of 53, after IVF treatment in Christian Fertility Institute in Easton, Pennsylvania, in order to act as a gestational surrogate for her 31-year-old son Mark Wesolowski and his 32-year-old wife, Susan Cooper Wesolowski, who underwent hysterectomy at age 21 after the birth of her first son died at 2, and was not able to have children. It was believed that Geraldine Wesolowski, who was postmenopausal, was then the oldest woman in the United States to give birth through in vitro fertilization. That led to appearances on the Oprah Winfrey and Montel Williams television shows, according to Dr. Ida M. Campagna, the Amherst-based obstetrician who delivered Matthew. Matthew died in February 2010 due to injuries sustained in a car accident. |
53 years | September 2005 | Annie Casserley | Her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's genetically selected oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United Kingdom | Annie Casserley gave birth to her own granddaughter Annie Trinity Hattersley in United Kingdom in September 2005, at the age of 53, after choosing to act as a gestational surrogate for her 35-year-old daughter, Emma Hattersley, who has a rare cancer-like condition, Histiocytosis X, making her unable to withstand pregnancy. |
53 years | June 2008 | Sarajean Grainson | David Grainson, her second husband, former priest | IVF with oocytes donation | United States | Sarajean Grainson of Long Island, New York, gave birth to twin sons, Matthew and David, in June 2008 at the age of 53, after IVF treatment with oocytes donation. Grainson and her second husband David, former priest, already had a son Luke in December 2006. Sarajean Grainson also had three adult children from her first marriage. |
53 years | December 2008 | Adele Dramis | Her husband | IVF with oocytes donation | Italy | Adele Dramis, an Italian woman of Greek origin, gave birth to twins, a boy, Vicenzo, and a girl, Rosa, in Naples, Italy, in late December 2008, at the age of 53. She had been trying to get pregnant since she got married at age 45, and after years of trying she decided to receive IVF treatment. |
53 years | June 2011 | Anna Fehér | Her husband | IVF | Hungary | Hungarian actress Anna Fehér gave birth to her first child, a son, László Barnabás, on June 4, 2011, at the age of 53. She has been trying to conceive for ten years. |
53 years | June 2011 | Debbie Hughes | Paul Clarke, her 47-year-old partner | Natural conception | United Kingdom | Debbie Hughes of Daventry, gave birth naturally to her son Kyle at Northampton General Hospital in June 2011 at the age of 53, after a natural conception. She had no plans to become a mother again when she became pregnant, as she had been taking contraceptive pills. |
54 years | 2000 | Galina Shevchenko | Her husband | Postmenopausal IVF treatment with oocytes donation | Russia | Galina Shevchenko gave birth to twin sons in Russia in 2000 at the age of 54. Shevchenko and her husband decided to go through fertility treatment after accidental death of their only son. It was the first case of successful case of IVF treatment of a postmenopausal woman in Russia. |
54 years | 2001 | Viven Morris | Mark Westrop, her son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United Kingdom | Vivien Morris gave birth to her granddaughte Maisie in 2001, at the age of 54, acting as a surrogate mother for her 29-year-old daughter Laura Westrop, who was unable to carry a baby after cancer treatment, and her husband Mark. |
54 years | January 2007 | Unidentified | Her husband | IVF with oocytes donation | Czech Republic | 54-year-old woman gave birth to a daughter in Prague in "U Apolináře" clinic in January 2007, after IVF treatment with oocytes donation. |
54 years | November 2009 | Unidentified | Her 71-year-old husband, previously childless | IVF with oocytes donation supposed | Israel | 54-year-old woman gave birth to twins, boy and girl, in Bnei Brak, Israel, in November 2009. Her 71-year-old husband became a first-time father, while she had adult children from a previous marriage. |
54 years | July 2010 | Karen Johnston | Roger Johnston, her 55-year-old husband | IVF | United Kingdom | Karen Johnston of Bicester, England, gave birth to twins, a boy, Asa, and a girl, Imogen, in July 2010, at the age of 54, after undergoing IVF treatment in Czech Republic. She was already a mother of 8, always alternating boy and girl also —Daniel (♂) 33, Jemma (♀) 28, Scott (♂) 27, Amy (♀) 26, Aiden (♂) 17, Bethany (♀) 14, Joseph (♂) 13, Willow (♀) 2—. Her eighth child was born in June 2008 also after IVF treatment in the same Czech clinic. |
54 years | October 2010 | Giovanna Ciardi | Bruno Paoli, her partner | Natural conception | Italy | Giovanna Ciardi of Camaiore, Province of Lucca, already mother of two, gave birth to her third child, a daughter, named Adria, on October 11, 2010, at the age of 54, after a natural conception. |
54 years | August 2011 | Solange Couto dos Santos | Jamerson de Andrade, her second husband | Natural conception | Brazil | Brazilian actress Solange Couto dos Santos, already mother of a son, Márcio Felipe, and a daughter, Morena Mariah, of her previous marriage, gave birth to her third child, a son, named Benjamin, on August 15, 2011, at the age of 54, after a natural conception. |
54 years | June 2018 | Brigitte Nielsen | Mattia Dessi, her husband | Natural conception | Denmark | |
54 years | October 2019 | Unidentified | Unknown | Natural conception | Russia | 54-year-old woman from Tomsk Oblast, Russia gave birth to her fifth child in November 2019 after natural conception. |
54 years, 1 month | February 1916 | Elizabeth Pearce | Her husband | Natural conception | United Kingdom | Mrs Elizabeth Pearce of Biterne, Southampton, England, gave birth to her youngest child on February 10, 1916, when she was 54 years and 40 days old. |
54 years, 10 months | January 2000 | Aracelia Garcia | Her husband | Natural conception | United States | Aracelia Garcia of Sunnyside, Washington, astounded doctors when she naturally conceived (without hormonal treatment) all-female triplets in 1999 at the age of 54. She delivered by Caesarean section in early January 2000 three healthy girls, named Arianna, Brianna and Cecelia, to play on initials A, B, C. |
54 years, 11 months | April 1847 | Barbara Christman | Her husband | Natural conception | United States | Barbara "Barbary" Christman (née Klientop) of Pennsylvania, gave birth 3 days shy of her 55th birthday, to William Christman on April 30, 1847. Her husband, Daniel Christman of Chestnut Hill, PA, was 62. William was the seventh of Daniel and Barbara's seven children. |
55 years | 1998 | Unidentified | Anonymous sperm donor | IVF with ICSI | India | 55-year-old Bodo woman, from states of the far north-eastern India, bordering Tibet and Bhutan, gave birth after IVF treatment with intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). |
55 years | April 1998 | Merryl Fudel | Anonymous sperm single donor | IVF | United States | Merryl Fudel, a five-time divorcee from San Diego, gave birth to quadruplets, three girls and a boy, on April 18, 1998, at the age of 55, after IVF treatment. She is probably the oldest woman who gave birth to quadruplets. Three girls and one boy were born at 27 weeks, the smallest of them weighted only 10 oz at birth. One of the girls died 8 days later. Fudel surrendered two other girls for adoption, so only the boy remained with mother. |
55 years | February 2000 | Marilyn McReavy Nolen | Randy Nolen, her 48-year-old husband | IVF with oocytes donation | United States | Marilyn Nolen (born McReavy), former Olympic athlete and volleyball coach at St. Louis University, gave birth to twin sons, Travis and Ryan, on February 22, 2000, at the age of 55. She married her husband Randy Nolen in 1988, and since that were trying to have a child, and after 10 years with no success they decided in 1998 to go through IVF. |
55 years | December 2004 | Tina Cade | Jason Hammond, her 29-year-old son-in-law (gestational surrogate) | IVF with her daughter's oocytes (gestational surrogate) | United States | Tina Cade, from Virginia, gave birth to her own triplet grandchildren, two boys, Aaron and Kai, and a girl, Simone, in December 2004, at the age of 55, acting as a surrogate mother for her 29-year-old daughter Camille Hammond and her husband Jason. Camille suffers from endometriosis and had tried six attempts of IVF, but had been unsuccessful each time, and then Ms Cade has offered her help. |
55 years | July 2007 | Veronica Mensah | Atsu Dikenou, a fellow Ghanaian | IVF | United States | Veronica Mensah of Lithonia, Georgia, gave birth to twins, boy and girl, Daniel Atsu and Diana Atsupui, in July 2007, at the age of 55. The children are named Dikenou after their genitor. She had been trying to have children since she was 25, and after 30 years she decided to try through IVF, which was done in her native Ghana. |
55 years | August 2007 | "Brinda" | "Alagappan", her 57-year-old husband | IVF with oocytes donation and ICSI | India | Indian woman named "Brinda" from Bhadravathi, Karnataka, gave birth to twin sons, Akash and Rishikesh, on August 27, 2007, in Chennai, at the age of 55. She and her husband "Alagappan" were childless for 28 years due to lack of sufficient number of his sperms (oligospermia), so they decided to go through in vitro fertilization (IVF) with oocytes donation and intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). |
55 years | 2008 | Unidentified | Unknown | IVF | South Korea | A 55-year-old Korean gave birth at Seoul, South Korea, in 2008 (date not sure), with the help of the team of Dr. Kim Ahm who followed, after, "Park", the 57-year |