It’s no “miracle” or “wonder” that Kelly got pregnant in her late forties. She just decided she wanted to have another kid!
There’s nothing natural about Kelly Preston getting pregnant at the age of 47 experts agree. “The chances of getting naturally pregnant at the age of 47 are almost slim to NONE,” Dr. Brad Douglas, OB/GYN and Women’s Health Expert on JustAnswer.com, says to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “I have never seen a woman naturally pregnant past the age of 45, and most who do get pregnant usually miscarry due to the genetic problems with eggs after a woman has turned 40.”
“At the age of 40, only 1% of a woman’s eggs are available and viable,” continues Dr. Douglas. “At the age of 42/43, that drops to about 0.1% of viable eggs. So, by the time someone is 47, you’re probably talking about 1 in 10,000 chances of actually getting pregnant naturally. That is given trying for 1 year constantly.”
“It’s common knowledge in the medical/fertility world that it is extremely unlikely that a woman will conceive using her own eggs after the age of 43,” confirms Lauri Berger de Brito, Co-Director at Agency for Surrogacy Solutions, Inc. & Agency for Fertility Solutions.
“I bet that it is a donated egg” that Kelly used to get pregnant, says Professor Masood Khapamee of NYU School of Medicine. “Donor eggs are often the preferred and most successful method” for a woman Kelly’s age, confirms Dr. Jacques Moritz, Director of Gynecology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital.
“I think she used IVF — In vitro Fertilzation [the process of fertilizing an egg outside of the womb and then implanting it inside] — with a donor egg,” adds Dr. Douglas.
The whole process “is not risky for the woman herself,” explains Dr. Svetlana Kogan, founder of The Doctors at Trump Place. “However, there is a huge chance that a fetus will have birth defects: for example, a 1 in 40 risk of Down syndrome and a risk of 1 out of 10 for any other birth defects (hydrocephalus — collection fluid in the brain, cardiac malformations, cleft palate, and other chromosomal abnormalities.”
But, “to make sure the baby doesn’t have a genetic abnormality, we do a PGD [preimplantation genetic diagnosis] says Professor Khapamee.
However Kelly got pregnant, Hollywood Life would like to again congratulate her and John Travolta on the big news. We hope everything goes well through this pregnancy!
– Lindsey DiMattina, reporting by Spencer Cain and Sara Kapner