Fertility and Age

More and more of us are waiting longer to have our children. These days in urban centers around the country it is almost more uncommon for educated, career-minded women to have a child under 30 then it is to have one over 35. Times have changed for us and women are wanting to wait until they are more established in their work and home life before embarking on motherhood. But just how late is too late?

Most of us have probably heard the statistic that fertility for women begins to decline at around 35 years of age. In fact that is when fertility begins to sharply decline. Statistics show that fertility is actually on the way down as early as 27, following a peak in a woman’s 20s.

The Odds of Pregnancy

The pregnancy rate for women in their 20s is between 20-25% each month provided they are having sexual intercourse at ovulation. Women in their early 30s (up until 35) have a 15% chance of conceiving each month if they have planned sex. The risk of miscarriage also doubles for women in their 30s to about 20%. Women over 35 have about a 10% chance of conceiving in a month during which they are having intercourse at ovulation. Their miscarriage rate however goes up to 25%.

At 40 a woman’s fertility drops still further and she has only a 5% chance of getting pregnant at ovulation if sexual intercourse is timed well. It is also estimated that about 90% of a woman’s eggs have genetic abnormalities at this point.  And miscarriage rate increases to about 33% upon pregnancy.

Pregnancy over the age of 45 using one’s own eggs is very slim. There is about a 1% chance that it will occur. Miscarriage at this point is about 50%. A vast majority of the successful pregnancies that you hear about in women over the age of 45 occur due to egg donation from a much younger female.

Risks

The risks involved with pregnancy as a woman’s age increases are as follows:

• Miscarriage

• Premature labor

• Gestational diabetes

• Placenta previa

• Cesarean birth

• High blood pressure

• Baby born with chromosomal abnormalities i.e. Down syndrome

This doesn’t mean that millions of babies are not born to mothers of advanced age it simply means that the risk for complications or abnormalities is higher.  The major reason that women have increased difficulty getting pregnant with age is because a woman is born with all of her eggs and as she ages she has fewer and fewer of them left. Although women are born with over a million eggs, by puberty she will have about 300,00, and then only about 300 will ever mature and be released during ovulation.  Additionally a woman is more likely to have genetic abnormalities or unhealthy eggs the older she gets which often leads to miscarriages occuring.

The best strategy for healthy and effective family planning is to have children as early as a couple can within their relationship.  For many this may not be early at all, however if there is some flexibility, earlier is better. That being said a couple, and in particular a mother, need to feel emotionally capable of handling the responsibilities of having a baby.