Perinatal outcome in women over 40 years old over a three-year period at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra

Abstract

A current social trend is for women to delay their pregnancies. Late pregnancies are commonly associated with increased perinatal pathology. We carried out a retrospective observational study to analyse the maternal and fetal morbi-mortality in pregnant women over 40 years old. Clinical data were retrieved from the medical records of all pregnant women who had their pregnancy controlled at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN) between January 2011 and December 2013. A random group of women younger than 40 years of age was used as a control group. During the study period, the CUN oversaw 1035 pregnancies, of which 102 (10.1%) concerned women over 40. Whilst the over-40 group was statistically similar to the control group with respect to most variables analysed, women over 40 had statistically higher prevalence of gestational diabetes, number of pregnancies after Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ARTs), number of previous abortions, and prevalance of high-risk results from aneuploidy.screening.