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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

35 is not that old.

35 is considered a geriatric pregnancy. https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/parenthood-pregnancy/ger...

Literally the first words in TFA: ‘A “geriatric pregnancy” is an outdated term’

That's a result of the euphemism treadmill, not of physical reality changing. Some call it advanced maternal age now and it's exactly the same thing, if you go see a fertility specialist you can be sure he will change his recommendations greatly depending on whether you are younger or older than 35.

It's a confusing term as well, as geriatric, even when it comes to technical terms ("geriatric medicine") tends to refer to actual seniors and the elderly.

Descriptions are usually relative. Obviously, a 65+ year old cannot get pregnant, so logically, geriatric pregnancy must mean a pregnancy at the older end of the ages that it is possible to be pregnant.

There have been cases where older women can still gestate a baby.

Here's a story of a grandmother birthing her own grandchild.

https://people.com/human-interest/grandmother-gave-birth-son...

But that is not what geriatric means, neither in the layman definition nor in the medical definition.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geriatric

https://www.health.harvard.edu/d-through-i#G-terms

https://openmd.com/define?q=geriatrics

The term was replaced by “advanced maternal age”. Same issues, new modern name.

It’s a bizarre cultural problem.

I was shocked that this was the case and wished I knew about this sooner. Also had kids in mid-30s and it is complicated to say the least. I thought 40 was late (as had some friends succeed at that age).

Statistics are a thing, individual biology and factors are another thing. Had our son when I was 41 and hubby 47 - got pregnant easily, pregnancy and birth was no problem, kiddo doing great.

We did not plan it this late, but just wanted to say that higher age is not a guarantee of bad things.

For women who have not birthed at least one child, 35 is ancient.

For men 35 is nothing, men can sire children to their last breath.

Ask your friends who have started families past 35, so many stories about fertility, doctors, etc.

It is also why you see so many twins among middle aged professional couples, the children were the result of fertility treatments.

With the way society is changing, I think eventually human evolution will catch up and allow women to stay fertile later in life.

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