When Claudia Raia unexpectedly discovered a late pregnancy at age 55, the case brought the question: is it possible to get pregnant during menopause? According to gynecologist Carla Iaconelli, a specialist in Human Reproduction, this hardly tends to happen. To arrive at this answer, it is necessary to understand why.

The obstetrician and gynecologist Domingos Mantelli, from the Mantelli Clinic, explains that menopause consists in a period in which the loss of female fertility occurs: "In other words, there is ovarian failure, as well as a stop in hormone production, so ovulation stops and the woman is no longer fertile", explains the specialist.

According to the obstetrician, this milestone occurs between ages 45 and 55: "Before that, it would be early menopause, and after that period, it would be late menopause," adds Mantelli.

Read more: Different menopause symptoms: know what they are and how to relieve them

Pre-menopausal pregnancy can happen, you know.

Still, following a chronological line of the female organism, women tend to live the premenopausal period, which is also called climacteric: "It is marked by menstrual failures", explains the obstetrician. In other words, the woman tends to menstruate one month and stay two or three months without the monthly bleeding, for example.

Thus, due to this irregularity in the female organism, the woman can end up getting pregnant during the climacteric period, "especially during the periods when she menstruates, since she can ovulate," adds Mantelli.

Premenopausal Symptoms

Besides age, other symptoms mark the period before menopause, according to Carla:

• Heat waves;
• Memory loss;
• Lack of sleep;
• Vaginal dryness;
• Urinary infection as well as urine leakage;
• Loss of lean mass;
• Fat distribution in the abdominal region.

Read more: Yes, it is possible to get pregnant in premenopause. Understand

If it is not possible to get pregnant during menopause, what happened to Claudia Raia?

So, when understanding the possibility of getting pregnant during premenopause as well as menopause, it is important to know that Claudia Raia's case was an exception. What happened was that the actress underwent in vitro fertilization (However, when she stopped the hormone therapy, the artist learned that her organism had ovulated again.

Although the news was positive, the actress didn't believe that a natural pregnancy was possible, and so she lived her days as normal - with the right to travel with her children, a lot of working out, and even a change in hair color.

So, what is understood to have happened is that the hormone therapy caused Claudia Raia's organism to have ovarian follicles again. They, in turn, are responsible for storing the eggs and releasing them. Soon, natural pregnancy became possible for the artist when she had unprotected sex with her husband Jarbas Homem de Mello, with whom she has been with since 2018.

Sources:

• Dr. Carla Iaconelli, gynecologist specialized in Human Reproduction;
• Dr. Domingos Mantelli, gynecologist and obstetrician at the Mantelli Clinic;

Reference:

• SOGESP.