Why I like treating older patients

Everyone knows that IVF success rates drop as a woman becomes older. This is why many IVF clinic refuse to treat older women. Treating older women reduces the overall success rates of the clinic; and because it's become so important to rank high in the IVF success rate league tables (after all, IVF is a competitive business !) most IVF clinics do not want to jeopardize their statistics. They will either refuse to treat these women ; or recommended that they consider using donor eggs.
In our clinic , we are actually very happy to treat older women, for two reasons. For one thing, these women present a medical challenge ; and it can be quite professionally fulfilling when you can get a woman pregnant , when other IVF clinics have refused to treat her.

Secondly , because these women are older, they are often much more mature and well-informed and have realistic expectations of the treatment . They are willing to form a partnership with their doctor, so it is very personally satisfying when we can help them to achieve their goal. Very importantly, they have seen much more of life, and we enjoy learning from them and their life experiences.

Finally, when they do get pregnant, they are very grateful - and they make excellent parents as well !

So while young IVF patients are always welcome , because it so easy to get them pregnant , we look forward to working with the more challenging older ones, because they keep us on our toes, and we learn so much from them every day !