Woman Surprised to Find Out She's Pregnant Instead of Going Through Menopause
A 47-year-old woman who thought she was going through menopause got the surprise of her life recently when doctors told her she was instead pregnant with her first child. After experiencing severe abdominal pains, Judy Brown asked her husband Jason, 48, to take her to the emergency room.
After an examination at Beverly Hospital in Massachusetts, physicians broke the news to Judy that her abdominal discomfort was actually labor pain. “[The doctors said,] ‘Well, it’s good news. You don’t have any blockages or anything. You’re pregnant. And you’re going to have her now,’” she told WCVB News regarding the surprise birth on Nov. 4.
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A healthy, eight-pound baby girl arrived an hour later, and Judy and Jason named her Carolyn Rose. The couple, who have been married for 22 years, were in shock. As Brown’s husband told WCVB News, “I feel I’m still going to wake up in the emergency room and feel, ‘Hey, this was only a dream… It felt so real.’”
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Although the odds of becoming pregnant while nearing menopause are rare, it happens. “The average age of menopause is about 52, 53 years of age,” Iffath Hoskins, M.D., an obstetrician and gynecologist at New York University Langone Medical Center, tells Yahoo Parenting. “There will be some women who will get menopause earlier and some later. However, as she is becoming perimenopausal, her chances of ovulation are going to be very low, but not yet zero until she totally goes into menopause. There is some life and functionality left in the ovaries.”
Hoskins points out that scientists have recently identified four genes that have an anti-aging effect on the entire body, which may explain why some women are able to conceive later in life. “Scientists have looked at women who have these late pregnancies and found there’s a cluster of these types of genes in people who have many anti-aging behaviors, including getting pregnant late, when most women’s ovaries have shut down,” she says. “Their ovaries are more functional, like younger women’s.”
It’s possible Judy missed the signs that she was carrying a baby since menopause and pregnancy share some similar symptoms, including missing periods, bloating, mild nausea, and weight gain. “The average person could say, ‘How could you not know you were pregnant?’” says Hoskins. “But it’s entirely possible that she was used to not having periods and was having gastrointestinal problems before getting pregnant, and then suddenly she had cramping and contractions.”
Judy noticed a growing tummy bulge, but she chalked it up to weight gain that comes with age. “I felt like I was turning into my mother,” she said. But her husband noticed that normally, when you gain weight around your stomach, it feels soft, and Judy’s expanding belly was firm.
Despite being caught off-guard by the astonishing pregnancy, the couple instantly warmed up to their new baby. Judy said Carolyn Rose is already “daddy’s little girl.” Says Jason, “When she cries I am there.”
To make sure there are no more surprises in their future, Jason plans to get a vasectomy. "I will get the surgery before it even becomes a thought,” he said.
For women who have even slightest possibility of being pregnant, or who are going into menopause but notice symptoms that are slightly different than usual, Hoskins recommends getting a checkup just in case. “It’s much better to have healthy, monitored, appropriate care during your pregnancy,” she says.
(Photos: WCVB)
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