Media Centre

Media Advisories

SOGC Annual Clinical Meeting, Vancouver, June 22-27, 2006

Am I Too Old To Have A Baby?

When:    Saturday, June 24th, 2006 at 14:00 PDT

More than ever before, Canadians are delaying childbirth until later in life – but are we waiting too long?

With so many Canadian women choosing to delay childbirth, it has become all too common for infertility specialists to hear “I had no idea that it would be so difficult…” or “if only I’d known this when I was younger…” Increasingly, Canadian women and their health professionals are looking to assisted reproductive technology - but how much can this technology really promise?

At the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada in Vancouver, fertility expert Dr. Margo Fluker will discuss the current scientific understanding of aging and fertility. Dr. Fluker will also address the potential and the limits of assisted reproductive technologies to help women “turn back” their biological clock.

This session is open to the media. To set up an interview with a presenter please contact Patricia Robitaille at (604) 873-0080.

To register to attend this session, please go to the Media Desk on site at the Westin Bayshore, June 21-27, 2006.

Biographical Notes for Dr. MARGO FLUKER

Dr. Margo Fluker is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia. She is also co-director of the Genesis Fertility Centre in Vancouver.

Dr. Fluker is actively involved in medical education and received a National Teaching Award from the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1999. She is currently a senior editor for the Consensus Conference on Menopause and Osteoporosis for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. She has been the author or co-author of four book chapters, three Canadian Consensus Conference documents and thirty-six peer-reviewed articles. Her clinical and research interests involve a variety of women's health issues such as assisted reproduction, natural and premature menopause and osteoporosis.

Reproductive aging

Backgrounder

A woman’s fertility declines as she ages. Her risk of miscarriage or the risk of her child having chromosomal abnormalities also rises significantly. A woman’s risk of miscarriage more than triples from her early twenties to her early forties, and her odds for conception falls dramatically.

In addition to a reduction in pregnancy rates associated with increasing female age, there is also a significant increase in the risk of miscarriage and chromosomal (genetic) abnormalities.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) have allowed many women to push pregnancy into her later years, though success rates for IVF also falls with age. Egg Donation, in which a donor woman’s fertilized egg is implanted into a woman’s uterus, opens the possibility to pushing pregnancy even further into life, though there remain some ethical questions surrounding the process.

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About The SOGC:

The SOGC is one of Canada’s oldest national specialty organizations. Established in 1944, the Society’s mission is to promote excellence in the practice of obstetrics and gynaecology and to advance the health of women through leadership, advocacy, collaboration, outreach and education. The SOGC represents obstetricians/gynaecologists, family physicians, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals in the field of sexual reproductive health.

 

Last Updated April 19, 2007