What do Hollywood actresses Halle Berry, Marcia Cross, Susan Sarandon, Courtney Cox and Holly Hunter all have in common?
They had children in their 40s, some of them in their late 40s. But what they don’t tell you is that in most cases, women who do have children at this age aren’t getting pregnant ‘naturally’, or even through IVF. They’re having to use a donor egg. Marcia Cross, of TV’s Desperate Housewives, recently revealed that a donor egg was how she managed to finally have children.
So it’s no wonder that many women are fooled by the fertility myth that having children later in life is easy. The truth is that your own eggs and fertility decline rapidly with age. Wait too long, and you won’t have the option of different fertility treatments. The only option you’ll have is an egg donor, simply because yours aren’t suitable to be used anymore.
But egg donors are in massively short supply in the UK. So you may be facing an even longer wait for a donor. At Manchester Fertility we actively campaign and encourage donors to come forward to help others, through our dedicated website – www.manchesterdonors.com.
It would help if more of these celebrities stopped keeping mum about how they conceived. Women need to stop believing that age is no barrier to having their own children, with their own eggs. The science of infertility treatment has come a long way, but there’s still no anti-ageing product that can stop your fertility declining, no matter what Hollywood claims.
Last updated: 20th January 2020
