Rewinding Your Biological Clock: Motherhood Late in Life [Hardcover]

Richard J. Paulson (Author), Judith Sachs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

In 1996, headlines around the world announced that 63-year-old Arceli Keh had just become the oldest woman in the world to give birth. Dr. Richard Paulson had assisted Mrs. Keh by using a donor egg and in vitro fertilization. This incredible example of how assisted reproductive technologies, or ART, can change the course of nature has raised tough biological, emotional, and ethical issues that will be debated for years to come.

Rewinding Your Biological Clock is a unique exploration of each of these issues, especially the "how to" of peri- and post-menopausal pregnancy. It tells the story of forty-eight-year-old Sarah, a woman who decides to become a mother after she is no longer physiologically capable of conceiving without technological assistance. We learn about her motivations, her fears, and her hopes, and see the hard decisions she must make about the difficult--but ultimately rewarding--process ahead. Alternating with Sarah's story are chapters that explain the medical procedures involved, including a step-by-step guide to the process of egg donation as well as other reproductive technologies.

For any woman at or approaching menopause--with or without children--or anyone curious about the exciting new possibilities for motherhood Rewinding Your Biological Clock is an invaluable guide for becoming a parent late in life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Assisted reproductive technology (ART), where an egg and a sperm can be removed from the human body, joined together in a biological marriage, and replaced in a uterus (the mother's or another woman's), has greatly expanded the scope of human reproduction." Reproductive endocrinologist and ART specialist Paulson, assisted by Sachs, focuses predominantly on one aspect of ART, the artificial fertilization of a donor egg and its subsequent transplant into the prepared uterus of a post-menopausal woman. While providing the medical background behind ART procedures in chapters filled with technical information, the authors try to explore the human, emotional side in alternating chapters that tell the fictional account of Sarah, a 48-year-old woman desperately seeking a child. Unfortunately, this device proves ineffective, as the fictitious dialogue all too obviously provides the opportunity to raise technical issues in a colloquial setting. The explanatory chapters, on the other hand, written from Paulson's perspective, do provide a broad overview explaining how it is possible for women in their 50s and 60s to give birth, albeit to a child arising from someone else's egg. The final chapter, however, devoted to ethical issues, proves a disappointment that provides little analysis of the wide range of thorny problems associated with ART. Author tour. Agent, Al Zuckerman, Writer's House.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Besides being a good consumer guide, this book will advance the debate about the appropriateness of infertility treatments in older couples." -- Los Angeles Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071673303X
• ISBN-13: 978-0716733034
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,406,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars informative, inspirational + hopeful for the prospective mom, May 22, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (united states) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rewinding Your Biological Clock: Motherhood Late in Life (Hardcover)

This book was written by 2 people. Parts deal with the mechanics of fertility treatment and other parts follow a 48-year-old woman's life as she decides to achieve motherhood.

The writing of the medical aspects of fertility is done in a detailed and complete manner. It is an education by itself and can be referred to often by any fertility patient with medical questions. (Note: Dr.Paulson is a University professor.)

The portrayal of the older would-be mom is very repectful. She has taken care of herself so well that she is able to run an actual marathon. Why shouldn't she be able to have a baby? A man in her position can have a baby!

This book gives men and women a way to achieve some manner of reproductive parity.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An instructive book, written with compassion and respect., July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rewinding Your Biological Clock: Motherhood Late in Life (Hardcover)

An instructive book about assisted reproduction in the postmenoupausal years, written with great compassion and respect for the couples contemplating such a decision. Paulson and Sachs are obviously attuned to all of the emotional and ethical, as well as practical issues, that enter into such a decision. As a clinical discourse on post-menopausal pregnancy issues it is first rate. As the journey of a fictious woman who must deal with all of the complexities of making such a decision it is an emotional and compelling story.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating discussion of conception through donated eggs, March 27, 2003

By 

Carol C. "ccjello" (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rewinding Your Biological Clock: Motherhood Late in Life (Hardcover)

This isn't so much a book about "Motherhood Late In Life" as it is about conception using donor eggs. As a 40+ woman pregnant for the first time (through traditional methods), I picked up this book after my first OB visit, thinking it would provide a good overview of some of the issues I might face. At the time, I didn't realize that the book was specifically about ART (assisted reproductive technology) and pregnancies through donated eggs; I assumed it was just about being an older mom. Nonetheless, once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. It provides much more detail about the biology of conception than do any of the traditional pregnancy books. Juxtaposed with the detailed biology lessons are installments in the story of Sarah & Joe, an older (Sarah is 48; Joe is younger) couple that opts for donor egg use after years of more traditional fertility treaments. In telling the story of Sarah & Joe, the authors address the ethical issues of pregnancy in post-menopausal women in what struck me as a balanced, compassionate, and very thoughtul manner. In the Sarah/Joe story, they discuss the response Sarah & Joe elicit from family members, friends, Sarah's sister, Sarah's adult daughter from a previous relationship. Let's face it -- not everyone is going to be congratulatory & rushing to hold a baby shower for a 50 year old pregnant woman -- or a lesbian or single woman for that matter; nor do all folks embrace the idea of creating an embryo in a test tube rather than accepting whatever God apparently had in mind. And I think it would make a typical adult women a little put off to learn her mother (and her children's grandmother) was using a donor egg to become prenant again. Paulson & Sachs deal with the questions and challenges that women choosing egg donation (or even pregnancy later in life or under other non-traditional circumstances) may face, and their treatment is even-handed -- realistic, not pedantic or preachy, not utopian. I think this would be essential reading for anyone considering assistance in reproduction, especially egg donation. It would also be helpful for the friends and families of women who have elected to use donor eggs.