Brazilian actress Claudia Raia was 55 when she found out about her surprise pregnancy. She was in the midst of menopause. Can you imagine?
Her first two are children are 19, daughter Sophia, and 25, son Enzo, whom she shares with actor Edson Celulari, came after a whirlwind fertility journey.
After one unsuccessful round of in vitro fertilization in her early 50’s, with husband, Homem de Mello, they opted not to do another cycle. They decided a third baby just wasn’t in the cards for their family.
“I had a very serious conversation with God. I said, ‘I’m not going to try more than once. I’m not going to challenge fate. I’m going to try once, and if it works, it’s okay, and if it doesn’t, I’ll understand,’’ she shared of her story in a Brazilian TV interview in September, as translated from Portuguese.
Life had other plans because at 55, Claudia naturally got pregnant three years after doctors told her she had begun menopause, which according to the Cleveland Clinic happens around age 51, surprising both her medical team and her family.
The chances of this happening are “way less than 1%,” according to Dr. Elizabeth Sarah Ginsburg, a reproductive endocrinologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston who has not personally treated Claudia.
Dr Ginsburg points to one population study done on the Hutterites, a community similar to the Amish or the Mennonites.
“They don’t use birth control, they have very low incidence of sexual transmitted diseases — and they had no reported pregnancies that went to delivery after 46, in this fairly large population,” she told TODAY.com.
Dr Ginsburg notes that data shows the likelihood of a 44-year-old woman taking home a baby from a cycle of IVF is less than 2%. Claudia was 55 when she conceived. The chances of experiencing a miscarriage after 45 is roughly 80%, she noted.
Before getting pregnant, Claudia was told during a medical exam that she appeared to be ovulating again, but the actress believed it was a mistake or an anomaly and never thought it could result in pregnancy.
When she felt off months later, and all her other tests came back as expected, doctors gave her a pregnancy test. Not only did it come back positive, but she would quickly learn she was just shy of clearing her first trimester.
On Feb. 11, 2023, Claudia and her husband welcomed a baby boy named Luca. The infant joined his grown siblings in turning the family of 5 to a family of 6, including Claudia’s ex husband.
“We are overflowing with happiness and love,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Dr Ginsburg says what happened to Claudia is nothing short of a medical miracle.
“Most women in their fifties use donor eggs because typically eggs in a woman that age — if she has any — are chromosomally abnormal,” Dr Ginsburg explains.
She adds that there are also many health risks of pregnancy in your 50s.
“Studies show a high incidence of early preeclampsia or hypertensive disorders,” she says. “In some cases, the pregnant person’s kidneys stop working well, or their liver function can become abnormal. Sometimes a baby has to be delivered very prematurely in order to save the mother’s life. That’s what we really worry about.”
Bottom line, Dr Ginsburg says: “If this was truly a spontaneous pregnancy, she got very lucky.”
Join the conversation and let us know what you think! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, & Linkedin.
Subscribe here so you do not miss any future articles. We write about everything from aging, health, wealth, love to current events and interesting things happening in the world.
Follow our Old Cow Podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Anchor, and anywhere you listen to Podcasts, to hear conversations like this and other topics of interest to people over 40.
Have something to share? Be a guest!
Email us at info@old-cow.com
