How confident are you in the advice that you don't need contraception after 55?

[Gelatibon]

GP (and written NHS advice) says it's not required, even if you're still having some periods, after 55th birthday...

I know pregnancy is unlikely and a successful one even less so, but....

@Ruffpuff That’s really depressing. 😕

I don't know but what i can tell you, as I said my mum was still having regular cycles at 59, and was moaning to the GP. Who said her cycles will keep her healthy.
She's now 80, and no signs of slowing down.

But is it cycles keep you healthy or is it being healthy keeps your cycles?

While a live birth might be incredibly rare.

How do we know about women in their 50s having miscarriages or early losses? That's what worries me, who wants the stress of a pregnancy to then find out its not viable.

Im childfree by choice so its nothing to do with it being a hard thing to accept. I absolutely do not want to risk a pregnancy as ive never wanted kids I dont want to risk a painful miscarriage either. Im almost 52

I dont want rare. I want impossible

What “fertility test”? Fertility isn’t measured in one specific test.

Edited to add, how can you be 7 years post menopause yet still be apparently able to have children? The very definition of post menopause is the end of your fertile life. Unless you mean the coil artificially stopped your periods? Rather than a natural menopause.

I'm guessing they'll have measured her AMH
Which is also used as a guide for the chances of success with IVF and the level of drugs required to make eggs suitable to harvest.

Nothing will give you impossible except not having sex....

I was 57 when I went through the menopause. However, I would have been confident to stop using contraception at 55 even with regular periods. It wasn't an issue for us as DH had a vasectomy after DS2 was born.

I have a friend whose mum had a surprise pregnancy at 53 (she thought it was the menopause) and so has a brother 24 years younger than herself. But that is incredibly rare.

I had regular periods until I was 55 then nothing for a year and then out of the blue I started getting what appeared to be regular light periods again. A uterine scan was normal and by coincidence I had a colposcopy for an abnormal smear where they asked if they could remove my coil as it might be causing the bleeding - it was. In hindsight, I’m a bit surprised my GP didn’t suggest coil removal.

I have a friend whose sister had all three children after 45. She met her husband late and that was how it panned out. All healthy babies and no ivf intervention.

As needspace states it was a AMH blood test.

My periods had stopped, restarted and then stopped again before I had the coil inserted, and I had a couple of menopause symptoms but nothing major so I have no idea whether I have actually gone through the menopause which is probably why the doctor thought it was a good idea to check my fertility levels rather than just remove the coil at 55

I think you’re fine.

It’s vanishingly unlikely - I think there are 5 or 6 known women around the world who’ve got pregnant naturally at your age or older. So millions and millions to one.

At 40/41 my AMH was off the scale. But PCOS and irregular cycles were stopping me getting pregnant.

AMH is just one test that can help give people a rough idea of their fertility levels. You need to have your FSH and LH tested as well at least. My AMH was great at 39! As was my FSH and LH. The fertility clinic told me not to worry about IVF yet and it would likely happen naturally. It did not. These tests only give you an idea of your egg reserve and how your hormones are. They really don’t give you a great idea if you are actually fertile or not. My egg quality is likely utter bollocks. And yours at 55 is also likely utter bollocks. So the chances of you actually be “fertile” at 55 is almost 0.
So despite tests telling me at 39 I was fertile. I was not. And am clearly still not 5+ years later as despite no contraception and rounds of IVF I have no children.

She is very much the exception then, if it’s true

Good grief. I have no reason whatsoever to come on this thread and make something up. What a weird take.

Still not hit menopause at 56. Great sex life. I never give it a second thought. I had 3 children very easily before 30. I don’t think being very fertile previously has any bearing on the situation.

What a weird reply from you to my response…

1- No one said YOU were making it up, but people aren’t always forthcoming with the truth about how their kids are conceived.

2- What I said is absolutely right. Having 3 babies when you’re older than 45 would be almost unheard of….

This. ^ Extremely rare. Probably 1 in a 100,000 chance.

And right now, we have ANOTHER 'is 43 too old to start trying for a baby' thread started today on Mumsnet! 🙄 Posted today. They're twice weekly now, and the answer is always ALWAYS 'yes it is too old to start trying for a baby!'

I'm not even posting on this particular thread as I am actually sick to death of seeing this same thread posted CONSTANTLY. It's tedious now. No way are these posters not seeing the other threads. They are twice weekly virtually. Why do people keep starting them? I can't believe every thread started asking 'Am I too old to start trying for a baby at 43, 44, 45, 46 etc,' is always started by a new member on here, who has NEVER seen an almost identical thread on here. 🙄

I'm not sure half of them are even real to be honest. Many of them just have the first post and then nothing else. The odd one has one other post, and that's it. They don't tend to stay on the thread, and keep posting. I think many are posted with the attention of starting a bun fight, or frothing.

Again are you absolutely sure it isn't your friend's child ? How old is your friend ? This was still very common in the '70s.

I've said this before. Babies who are 'born to' women in their mid 50s, almost ALWAYS turn out to be the child of a younger family member (usually their daughter or niece.) It's kept very quiet, and no-one talks about it, but it was very common some years ago. (Probably still happens in some families/communities.)

Unless it's IVF, no woman is having babies in her mid 50s.

I became pregnant at 47 almost 48, naturally and completely unexpectedly. GP told me “it happens “!

Why would I have loads of tests to check my fertility, I wasn’t trying to get pregnant, the doctor just thought it would be better idea to keep the coil in for another couple of years. I wanted it removed, she said don’t yet just to be on the safe side. I assume the doctor knows wtf she’s talking about.

Late 40s is not common but does still happen occasionally. 55 however is a whole different matter.