It’s Confirmed: 40 Really is the New 30! Except . . . Wait . . . Watch Out For the NOvary

September 23, 2010 | By: Elizabeth

Most people who know me, know that I am in my mid-early 40’s.  Turning 40 wasn’t a big deal for me.  I have such a baby face that sometimes I have a hard time getting people to take me seriously.  Turning 40 for me was a milestone of maturity I had long waited for.  You have to take a woman in her 40’s seriously.  If for no other reason than you’ve got the mileage to deserve it.  And yes, thanks to amazing strides in modern medicine (not to mention Botox^® and Viagra^®), people are living longer and are taking the time to enjoy their life; people are doing things later in life and enjoying them with the vigor and spirit of someone fifteen to twenties years younger.  No longer are we rushing ala “Mad Men” into marriage and childbearing in our 20’s.  Women are taking the time to establish themselves and find the right mate.   Forty has thus become to the former Twenty-Somethings, what 30 was to our parents’ generation.

There is a lot more fun to be had and work to be accomplished, praise to be garnished and shopping for hot “Jeggings” (well maybe not for me) to be done in one’s 40’s.  The “not your mom’s kind of jeans” have given way to a new look for those of us who are fabulous and 40: long hair and tight jeans are acceptable on a 40 year old woman’s body. No longer are these considered unacceptable for a woman of a “certain age”!  No longer does turning 40 qualify you as a “woman of a certain age” and for that matter, neither does turning 50!!  As a dear friend of mine recently turned 40 and all her friends gave her a shout-out on Facebook (and yes, someone not yet 40 begged my friend to confirm that 40 is the new 30), it was generally considered among her already 40 friends that turning 40 was a cause for celebration.   So yes, my friends, your 40’s are a decade to be embraced and not dreaded.

Except for one small, “eensy weensy” factor of which no woman should ignore and most women to my surprise are unaware of . . . have you met

The NOvary?

Who or What is the NOvary?  Well, let me fill you in!  The NOvary is the any-woman’s ovary who has decided not to cooperate with her plans to become a mother.  The NOvary does not care if you’re 30, 35 or 40.  She can and does reside in all women of all ages.  However, she tends to emerge with more Attitude at or around the time you turn 35.  And by the time you turn 40, the NOvary has almost universally decided to take over your reproductive system and your Plan.  The NOvary defies what medical science and a good cosmetic dermatologist have allowed us to enjoy — another decade of productivity and passion for all things, most especially those career, clothing or relationship related.  Because let’s face it, not every woman is ready to, or wants to have a child, in her 30’s.  Indeed, we have been taught to wait and enjoy, and to relish life!  And we should!!  But then as we turn 40 and we’ve lined all our nice little ducks in a row, or decided we don’t need our ducks to be in a row, and we consider parenting, we come face to face with the not-so-new but seemingly unknown nemesis to pregnancy and motherhood:

The NOvary.

The NOvary is the Ovary that says NO to all your carefully defined and created plans.  In the world of fertility, or rather infertility, 40 is from the reproductive endocrinologist’s standpoint, the death of your childbearing years.  The NOvary has not run a slick social media champagne – in fact it’s quite the opposite – she has been enjoying our ride along with us all the while knowing her little secret, and enjoying her secret power.  The NOvary is the Ovary that no longer makes healthy eggs and she is so stealthy and sophisticated that you can actually conceive on your own for a few years as she gains her power and comes into her prime.  But even though she hasn’t hit her full capabilities to destroy your dreams (or so you think) her influence over the eggs she releases on your behalf will cause you to miscarry, and miscarry again.  Lulled into a false sense of security that your eggs are working because you are getting pregnant, she continues to work her evil spell, pushing you farther and farther into her control.

So powerful is the NOvary that she can continue to elude you into believing that you are still fertile even though you’re 40.  So powerful is the NOvary that she can fool even the smartest of reproductive endocrinologists who will look at all your Day-3 data, manage to retrieve some very “healthy” looking eggs from your ovaries, only to find that those fertilized eggs and “beautiful” preembryos don’t turn into the baby you are longing for.  The NOvary can place the cleverest of masks on eggs that are on the verge of retiring, and making them look as fabulous as you do in your 40 something glory.  But the NOvary knows: your eggs have long since passed their expiration date.

How do I know this?  How did I meet the dreaded and feared NOvary?  Over hundreds (and I unfortunately mean hundreds) of my clients have battled her, failed to defeat her, and then faced the reality that (whether they are Thirty-Somethings or Forty-Somethings, married, career in place, or otherwise just determined to become a mom), if they want to realize their dreams of becoming pregnant and having a baby that they would need to bypass the NOvary altogether.

Yes, we can defeat the NOvary.  You still have options and a powerful weapon to defeat the NOvary; one of those options is donor eggs and your success rate using donor eggs is about 50 to 60 times higher (perhaps more than that) than your chances are of defeating the NOvary. Yes, you read that correctly, success rates for using donor eggs are (at some fertility clinics) close to a 60% live birth rate!

Just as medical science has preserved your beauty and created a body that does not look, act or feel anywhere near 40, it has created a technology that can put the NOvary out of business!  But be warned, while 40 is truly the new 30 . . . the NOvary has no intention of catching up with the rest of us, and if you want to have a baby and you haven’t yet decided to TTC or the TTCing isn’t going anywhere, consider the fact that she may be up to her devilish deeds.

Celebrate your age and enjoy your life . . . but please don’t forget she’s out there . . . looming in the shadows and finding new ways to avoid detection by physicians and scientists alike . . . and her name is the NOvary!

Liz

p.s. up next, another option for defeating the NOvary . . . stay tuned!

Filed under: Age and Infertility, Egg Donation, IVF, The Journey to Parenthood, Thinking Out Loud, Third-Party Assisted Reproduction, Treatment

Tags: biological clock, Egg Donation, Facebook, IVF, miscarriage, premature ovarian failure