Recharge Your Ovaries

March 10, 2004 10:27 AM

Recharge Your Ovaries? Would it be better to have babies in our 60's? What if we could eliminate menopause? Is this just another instance of the dawn of agelessness?
posted by ewkpates (7 comments total)

This page is not available in a printer-friendly format, sorry (0).

I get that error in IE and Mozilla. Can you re-post the link? I would like to read that article.
TIA
a3
posted by a3matrix at 10:30 AM on March 10, 2004

This is a good link.
posted by a3matrix at 10:34 AM on March 10, 2004

Also reported here.
posted by mcgraw at 10:36 AM on March 10, 2004

I'm not against the research or anybody having the procedure done but I think if you're considering it you need to carefully consider everything.

My folks married late and had children late. My dad was in his early 40's when he had me. I don't feel that I've missed anything but it was different for me growing up than my friends. When I was 12 or so that put my dad in his mid 50's. Other kids were having fun playing sports with their dads but that wasn't really an option for me.

If people wait till their 60's then what's the probability that both parents will be around for their child's marriage or even senior prom?

I'd never say don't do anything but I would say please consider the circumstances.
posted by substrate at 10:46 AM on March 10, 2004

I am all for patrents living a very long time and having lots of kids when they (the paretns are old old old)...but wait till I use up my social security, please. Then, do what you want.
posted by Postroad at 10:52 AM on March 10, 2004

Would it be better to have babies in our 60's?
how about a hell no. i do think that older parents are on the whole more stable than younger parents - but have you ever chased around a two year old? pushing parenthood to that late date in a womens lifespan does not seem like a benefit due to the sheer amount of physical effort it takes to wrangle kids.

I think the only great benefit to women would be treatment that can alleviate the downsides to menopause. AND it underscores the point that there has not been enough scientific research done on women’s health issues. It’s getting slowly better day by day, but 50 years of unchallenged thinking on the nature of eggs and ovaries . . . which birth control pills attempt to regulate . . . leaves me to feel that this could lead to better and improved birth control methods.
posted by nyoki at 10:59 AM on March 10, 2004

Just because you can do something like this, doesn't mean you should. While I can see some (mainly financial) benefits for children of parents this old, people in their 60's are not generally physically equipped to deal with young children, as mentioned above. I am sure there are exceptions and there are some 60 or 70 year olds who could run rings around some 20 year-olds but, on the whole, chasing children around on a full-time basis is best left to those who have not already walked most of their lifetime allotment of kilometres.
posted by dg at 8:32 PM on March 10, 2004