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Since the birth of the first baby conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, this procedure of fertilizing a woman's egg with a man's sperm outside the woman's body has helped many couples and individuals build families. IVF is not foolproof, however. In any one IVF attempt, 40 out of 100 women younger than 35 will become pregnant and deliver a live baby. For women older than 42, the numbers are lower: Just 4 to 5 out of 100 will deliver a live baby in any one IVF attempt. One reason for these low numbers is that embryos created using eggs of women older than 42 often have abnormal numbers of chromosomes (a condition called aneuploidy) — so most of these pregnancies end in miscarriages. For the same reason, women in this age group h…