Hollywood actress Sienna Miller is pregnant again at the age of 44 and, according to her own words, feels very comfortable about it. “Having a child at 29 and then at 42 and now at 44 – it’s so much easier. You no longer feel that inner conflict of feeling fragmented and constantly wanting to do X, Y, Z,” said Miller in an interview with women’s magazine “Glamour”. Miller showed off her baby bump on Instagram on Friday.

This was also easy to recognize at the Fashion Awards in London in December. As the celebrity portal “People” reports, She is expecting her second child with her partnerthe actor Oli Green. Their first child, a girl, was born at the end of 2023. Miller already has a thirteen-year-old daughter from a previous relationship with actor Tom Sturridge.

“When I’m lying in bed at 9 p.m. with a book, I’m so happy now. And now I have the excuse for it,” Miller continued. Life is more grounded. “I think the 30s are pure chaos. You think, ‘I want to settle down.’ I want children.” But once you’re 40, you think: “I somehow know who I am.” Miller was most recently seen in Kevin Costner’s Western project “Horizon.”

Many women ask themselves what their fertility will be like after the age of 40. Gynecologist Sabine Miltenberger sheds light on the opportunities, methods and risks surrounding pregnancy in later years.

FOCUS online: What are the chances of a natural pregnancy for women over 40?

Sabine Miltenberger: This question cannot be answered in general, as there are many factors for improvement as well as for Deterioration of women’s fertility can lead. So, in my opinion, a pure chance percentage is not possible. In addition, even if the chances are only in the single-digit percentage range, a woman will not become pregnant at a percentage point, but at 100 percent.

In fact, I tell my patients that from the end of their 30s onwards, every ovulation really counts if they still want to have children. For years, however, we have been seeing more and more women here in our practice in Munich who are becoming pregnant naturally even at 40 plus, and not just with the help of IVF medicine.

Unfortunately, our evolution is not as fast as society’s development, so over the course of our lives – we cannot produce new ones – our eggs have more and more genetic errors and no longer lead to healthy children.

What methods of artificial insemination are available to women over 40?

Miltenberger: For women over 40, many insurance companies no longer have payment agreements, so all procedures have to be paid for out of pocket. Every affected woman should clarify this with her insurance company in advance so as not to place an excessive financial burden on herself.

Basically, you can do a so-called “insemination”, i.e. sperm is administered through a thin tube into the uterus at the time of ovulation.

Classic IVF – i.e. the removal of the egg cell(s) with or without stimulation of the ovaries and the subsequent out-of-body fertilization with a sperm cell – is just as common as “ICSI”, i.e. the introduction of the sperm cell into the egg cell via a thin needle. After a certain incubation period, the embryos are then placed back into the uterus.

What are the risks associated with artificial insemination and hormone therapy for women over 40?

Bleeding after multiple egg removals from the ovaries can also occur, but is rare. The spread of bacteria into the abdominal cavity is also a rare complication. However, this can also result in adhesions that continue to cause pain.