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Infertility is a common issue that affects many couples worldwide, with as many as 1 in 8 couples struggling to conceive. In recent years, assisted reproductive technology has become increasingly popular, offering hope for couples who have been unable to conceive through natural means.
One of the most common forms of assisted reproductive technology is in vitro fertilization (IVF), which involves fertilizing an egg outside the body and transferring the resulting embryo(s) to the uterus. Two methods of embryo transfer are used in IVF: fresh and frozen.
One of the most critical decisions that a couple undergoing IVF must make is whether to opt for fresh or frozen embryo transfer. In this blog post, we will discuss everything you need to know about fresh vs. frozen embryo transfers and help you make an informed decision.
An embryo transfer is the final step in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. It involves the transfer of an embryo or multiple embryos to the uterus with the hope that they will implant and grow into a healthy pregnancy.
The IVF process begins with the stimulation of the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. The eggs are then retrieved and fertilized in a laboratory with sperm from a partner or a donor. The resulting embryos are then cultured for several days before being transferred to the uterus. Embryos can be transferred at various stages of development, depending on whether the transfer is fresh or frozen.
During the embryo transfer procedure, a physician will use a catheter to place the embryos into the uterus. The transfer is typically done under ultrasound guidance to ensure accurate placement. After the transfer, the woman may be advised to rest for a short period and avoid strenuous activities for a few days. It's important to note that not all embryos will result in a successful pregnancy, and multiple transfers may be necessary.
A fresh embryo transfer involves the transfer of an embryo to the uterus shortly (usually between 3 and 7 days) after it has been created through fertilization. The resulting embryos are observed for several days to determine their quality.
The highest quality embryo is selected for transfer to the uterus. The timing of the transfer is critical, and it must be synchronized with the woman's menstrual cycle to ensure that the uterine lining is receptive to the embryo.
Some studies claim that fresh embryo transfers are associated with slightly higher success rates than frozen transfers. The success rates for fresh transfers can range from 30% to 60%, depending on various factors such as the age of the woman, the number of embryos transferred, and the quality of the embryos.
That said, there are some disadvantages to fresh embryo transfers such as the need to synchronize the transfer with the menstrual cycle. There is also a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a condition that can occur when the ovaries are stimulated to produce too many eggs. OHSS has an incidence of 2-3% in fresh embryo transfers, but it can be life-threatening.
One of the most significant advantages of a fresh embryo transfer is that it is done in the same cycle as egg retrieval. This means that there is no need to wait for the embryos to be frozen and thawed before transfer.
A frozen embryo transfer, on the other hand, involves the transfer of embryos that have been frozen and stored for future use. This method of embryo transfer is becoming increasingly popular, as it offers several advantages over fresh transfers.
The process of freezing embryos involves suspending them in a special solution and cooling them to very low temperatures, which allows them to be stored for an extended period.
This allows for greater flexibility, as the embryos can be stored and thawed when it is convenient for the patient. Additionally, frozen embryo transfers eliminate the need for ovarian stimulation, which can be costly, uncomfortable, and carry some risks.
One study found that the success rates for frozen was between 25% to 50%, depending on various factors such as the age of the woman, the number of embryos transferred, and the quality of the embryos.
Additionally, there is a risk of damage to the embryos during the freezing and thawing process. Some studies comparing the success rate of frozen vs. fresh embryo transfer are conflicting, the difference ultimately seems to be minimal.
Frozen embryo transfer has some benefits that fresh embryo transfer does not have. Firstly, frozen embryo transfer allows for more flexibility in scheduling the transfer. It is easier to plan for the transfer, and it allows for a more relaxed and stress-free experience.
Secondly, frozen embryo transfer has a lower risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which is a condition where the ovaries become swollen and painful after egg retrieval. Finally, frozen embryo transfer has a lower risk of multiple pregnancies since fewer embryos are transferred at once.
Another factor to consider when choosing between fresh and frozen embryo transfer is the success rates. This study found that the birth rate for fresh transfers was 58% while the birth rate for frozen transfers stood between 57% and 63%. In other words, a fairly minimal difference.
It is important to note that success rates may vary depending on the individual's circumstances. For instance, women under the age of 35 may have higher success rates with fresh embryo transfer, while women over the age of 40 may have higher success rates with frozen embryo transfer. It is important to discuss with your doctor which option may be best for you based on your situation.
Another consideration when choosing between fresh and frozen embryo transfer is the cost. Typically, a fresh embryo transfer cycle is less expensive than going through an entire IVF cycle and a separate frozen transfer cycle. This is because fresh transfers are completed within a single cycle and only require one round of medications, while frozen transfers usually require two medicated cycles.
The first cycle involves the retrieval of the eggs and a round of stimulation medications, while the second cycle is required to prime the endometrium and improve receptivity before the embryo transfer. In addition to the medications, the cost of frozen transfers often includes additional fees.
The decision to opt for a fresh or frozen embryo transfer should be made after careful consideration of individual circumstances. Both fresh and frozen embryo transfers have their advantages and disadvantages, and it ultimately comes down to individual circumstances.
Women who have their periods regularly and have not experienced any clear issues with their cycle, might not expect to run into problems getting pregnant or having miscarriages.
Unfortunately, we know all too well that this is not always the case. If you are having trouble with pregnancy despite regular periods, something called luteal phase defects (LPD) might be the cause.
This condition affects the levels of progesterone that women produce during their menstrual cycle. But what exactly is LPD and how does it affect fertility?
A normal menstrual cycle begins with the Follicular Phase on the first day of bleeding and lasts about two weeks. During this phase, a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is released to help the eggs in the ovaries develop.
Estrogen is also produced during this phase so the uterine lining can also develop, essentially preparing your body to house an egg.
Once the Follicular Phase is completed, you will enter the Ovulation phase. Ovulation occurs when you have produced the maximum amount of estrogen your body needs to release the most mature egg.
The ovulation phase usually lasts between 12-24 hours, but you can still become pregnant a few days before or after ovulation.
Once the egg is released during ovulation, the follicles begin to release a hormone called progesterone. Progesterone is very important for the fertilized egg to successfully implant in the uterus and begin to grow.
This is also known as the Luteal Phase, which usually lasts between 12-16 days.
If the body has produced an adequate amount of cervical fluid during the first three phases, and the sperm is successfully carried to the fallopian tubes, the egg should become fertilized, also known as the moment of conception!
If the egg is not fertilized, the cycle will begin again.
Luteal phase deficiency (LPD) is a condition in which during the Luteal Phase, women do not produce enough progesterone for the egg to either implant or for an embryo to grow.
LPD was first recognized in 1949 as a potential cause of infertility. Although more than 70 years have since passed, a full understanding of the cause and diagnosis of LPD has still not been reached.
In fact, as of 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine states that a direct link between LPD and infertility has yet to be proven.
However, other research claims to reveal information that does link LPD and infertility.
Because the signs of LPD are so subtle, it can be hard to diagnose. Many women may not even take note of the signs until they experience issues with pregnancy.
Women with LPD have been found to experience a shortened Luteal Phase of less than 9 days. But other research shows that up to 5% of healthy fertile women also experience short luteal phases without experiencing fertility loss.
One study looked at five women who had experienced multiple miscarriages who were otherwise healthy. All five patients were found to experience spotting before their periods on a regular basis. All five women also had below-average progesterone levels from the 6th day of their luteal phases.
Abnormalities in hormone levels may be able to point to LPD, but the exact cause of hormone imbalances can also be difficult to pinpoint.
While the exact causes of LPD are still unknown, and additional data is needed to present exact numbers, LPD is considered very common. One study found that out of 463 cycles, there were 41 cycles (8.9%) with clinical LPD.
Any health condition that affects hormone levels in your body could be an underlying cause of LPD.
Some of the main conditions that could affect hormone production in women are:
Because of the difficulties in diagnosing LPD, there are still challenges in making direct connections between these conditions and LPD.
But by determining whether or not a woman is experiencing anything else that could affect her hormone levels, doctors can try to come up with the best course of treatment.
While there are some tests to try and diagnose LPD, there is no real reliable way to differentiate between fertile and infertile women.
The least invasive test doctors have used to try and diagnose LPD is measuring the menstrual cycle. However, there are a few issues with this test.
For one, studies have found that 13% of menstrual cycles are associated with a luteal phase that is 10 days or less. Not all women with a short luteal cycle experience issues with fertility.
Another issue is that the luteal phase can only be measured in cycles that do not result in pregnancy, making it hard to know what the exact length of the luteal phase is for women who become pregnant.
The second diagnostic test doctors have tried for LPD is measuring progesterone levels. This test also has its drawbacks because progesterone levels oscillate between 5 and 40 ng/mL over such a short period of time that a single random measurement does not reveal very much.
Taking a sample every day of the luteal phase is not exactly practical, so some doctors have determined that taking three samples should be adequate.
Another potential problem with measuring hormone levels is that progesterone production varies even in healthy fertile women. Overall, this test has not been clinically validated.
In the past, some doctors performed endometrial biopsies, in which a small biopsy of the uterine wall was performed. Because this procedure is rather invasive and never yielded any valuable results, it is also considered clinically invalid for diagnosing LPD.
It should come as no surprise that due to the difficulties with diagnosis, data on treatments for LPD is lacking. The good news is, as we mentioned above, not every woman with LPD has difficulty conceiving.
In the case that a woman with potential LPD and an underlying condition is experiencing fertility issues, treating the underlying condition, if possible, may solve the issue.
If there is no clear cause behind the potential LPD, taking progesterone supplements, paired with fertility treatments like IVF is the general course of treatment. Fertility treatments are an important piece of the treatment plan since there is no evidence that taking progesterone supplements can help to improve the natural menstrual cycle.
There is also conflicting evidence about progesterone supplements lowering the chance of miscarriage. While one study supports this hypothesis, there are others that do not think the data is strong enough to make a clear correlation.
It is unfortunate that in the 70-plus years since LPD was discovered, there is still so little understood about the condition. Hopefully, in the future, further research will help develop more accurate tests to understand whether or not LPD is directly linked to infertility so that treatment can improve.
If it’s taking you a long time to conceive your first baby, or you had your first child using IVF, this child could be your one and only.
Perhaps you may not be able to give birth a second time; your local regulations won’t allow you to undergo IVF for a second child or the cost is too high; or you simply don’t have the emotional bandwidth to cope with the stress and challenges of trying to conceive all over again.
Whatever the reason, you might find yourself raising an only child when you had always expected to give your child a sibling. Perhaps you even dreamed of having a big family. As well as having to cope with the loss of a dream, you might also be worrying about how it will affect your child to be an “only.”
There’s a persistent belief in “only child syndrome,” which holds that only children are negatively impacted by growing up without siblings. But at a time when more and more people grow up as “onlies,” does that belief still hold water?
Since research into the topic began over 120 years ago, a lot has changed about society. Today, it’s widely believed that “only child syndrome” is a myth, and there’s no “perfect” size for a family.
The idea that there’s something negative about being an only child began in the 1890s. In 1898, child psychologists G. Stanley Hall and E. W. Bohannon carried out a survey researching only children. They reported that only children are spoiled, selfish, maladjusted, lonely, antisocial, and bossy, to list just a few of the bad traits.
That study led to decades of damning only children. Psychologists claimed that because only children got the full attention of their parents and grandparents, they didn’t learn how to share, acquired an inflated sense of their own importance, and believed that they were fragile beings in a dangerous world. Without other children around them, psychologists argued, they never had to learn interpersonal skills.
In 1928, psychologist Norman Fenton claimed “Being an only child is a disease in itself.”
There is research showing that it can be tough to be an only child. Only children tend to be less tolerant and less resilient than those who grew up with siblings, and more likely to experience stress later in life when caring for their parents.
One study of college students in China found that only children had higher rates of anxiety, depression, and/or a combination of the two than children with siblings. 33.4% of only children in the study had anxiety syndrome, compared with 17.4% of people with siblings; 30.7% had depression, vs. 12.9% of non-only children; and 24.8% experienced both anxiety and depression, compared with 11.3% of non-only children.
But another study just a year later examined the psychological impact of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health. It reported that teenagers with siblings showed higher rates of depression and anxiety than those who are only children, with 35.2% of only children and 38.8% of non-only children showing symptoms of depression, and 20.5% of only children and 24.7% of non-only children showing anxiety symptoms. So like many things, the evidence is mixed.
Most research over the last few decades pointed to the same conclusion: there is no serious handicap in being an only child. In fact, it even brings a lot of positives.
Study after study reported that only children manage as well as or better than most children with siblings. Psychologist Toni Falbo, who is an expert on only children, conducted a meta analysis of over 100 studies and concluded that when it comes to academic achievement and intelligence, only children out-perform everyone except for firstborns and children from 2-child families. They also have a more positive parent-child relationship and better character traits than people who grew up with siblings, and are develop mentally on a level with firstborns and people from 2-child families.
Recent original research concluded that only firstborns and people from 2-child families perform as well as only children in an academic context, and that onlies are on an equal footing with people who grew up with siblings when it comes to interpersonal relationships and character traits.
Much of the research that found that only children are selfish, spoiled, and/or antisocial came from studies in China in the wake of China’s One Child Policy (OCP), which created a generation of children referred to as “Little Emperors.” But deeper studies showed that this was not because they didn’t have any siblings, but because they grew up in a cultural context that lavished praise and admiration on the only child.
In the last few decades, psychologists have agreed that what matters isn’t whether or not you have brothers and sisters, but what your relationship is like with your parents. Falbo pointed out that the reason why only children, firstborns, and people from 2-child families all have high levels of academic attainment and intelligence is because of their parent-child relationships.
According to a recent report, “different developmental outcomes between only children and non-only children is because the former group have a special parent–child relationship characterized by increased parental anxiety and attention.”
That means that parents of only children are more inexperienced as parents, so they can be more anxious and overprotective. But they are also more careful and responsive, which raises children who feel safe and supported, produces positive parent-child relationships, and creates a more stimulating home environment.
Ultimately, being an only child has both positives and negatives, just like having brothers and sisters. It’s true that only children often say that they regret not having had a sibling when they were a child, but there are also children who get bullied by their siblings, or who grow up with low self esteem because they felt like the least-loved child.
Before worrying about your only child, it’s worth remembering that being an only child today is very different to being an only child in 1898, or even in 1928. 100 years ago, children without siblings didn’t have a lot of options for socializing outside of the family, especially since far fewer lived in urban areas. But between playdates, preschool, and playing in the park, things are very different for today’s children.
In 2021 it’s also far more normal to be an only child, so onlies don’t feel stigmatized for not having brothers or sisters. Research by the Pew Center found that in 2015, 22% of children didn’t have siblings by the time their mother reached the end of childbearing age, compared with 11% in 1967.
Finally, psychologists agree that many elements combine to create a child’s personality. It’s not just about being an only child or your birth order, it’s also about how much you’re exposed to challenges, how much you can rely on your early relationships, and more.
If you’re worried about your only child, make sure to give them plenty of opportunities to socialize, and think about the extent to which you “bubblewrap” them and prevent them from taking risks.
If you’re starting your family or hoping to enlarge it, whether through fertility treatments, IVF, or conceiving naturally, there’s no need to worry about how an only child might cope. We hope your parenthood experience is smooth and anxiety-free.
For many couples who are trying to start a family, that 40th birthday can loom up ahead like a fertility cliff. Becoming pregnant between the ages of 20 and 35 may well be the ideal, but we all know that life doesn’t always work according to plan.
Let us give you some positive encouragement, for a change: even though it’s far easier to become a mother for the first time at a younger age, it can be safe to become a mother after 40.
Pregnancy is not always an easy experience even for younger women, and you’re likely to feel the impact even more when you’re past 40. But you can take steps to lower the effects of pregnancy on your health.
Pregnancy hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and relaxin soften the ligaments, which increases the risk that you could strain a muscle. At the same time, your larger stomach changes your posture and balance, which could put an additional strain on your joints.
Pay attention to the way you sit and stand, so that you don’t accidentally strain a muscle or harm your joints. Try to avoid lifting heavy objects past your first trimester.
Exercise plays an important role in a healthy pregnancy. It raises your mood, helps you sleep better, and helps reduce the potential backaches, nausea, and constipation that often accompany pregnancy. According to the Mayo Clinic experts, regular exercise could even help you have a shorter labor, avoid a C-section, and lower the risk of developing gestational diabetes.
In general, healthcare professionals agree that you can continue any exercise program, but should be careful about taking up a new kind of workout during pregnancy. It’s not a good time to try to reach your peak fitness goals, though; just maintain your current level.
Some of the best workouts for a healthy pregnancy include:
No matter how you slice it, you won’t have as much energy during pregnancy as you normally do, nor will you be as energetic as 20-something expectant mothers. Don’t push yourself to do more; it’s not a competition. Instead, allow yourself plenty of time to rest.
It can be difficult to get enough sleep during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester when every position feels uncomfortable, so take naps and rest as much as you can.
The awkward truth is that the older you are, the higher your risks of a pregnancy ending in miscarriage, rising from about 18% for 30-year-olds to 38% when you reach 40 and 70% at age 45.
Chronic conditions like thyroid disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure all add to the risk of pregnancy loss, so if you’re otherwise healthy you’ll be better placed to give birth to a healthy baby. However, it’s not always clear what causes a miscarriage.
The risks of stillbirth, on the other hand, aren’t much higher for women aged 40+ than for those in their 20s — until you reach the 39th week, that is. From week 39 and on, the risks of stillbirth among the over-40s are double those of someone aged 35. For this reason, best practice in the UK is to induce older women once they reach this point in pregnancy.
The statistics show that if you’re giving birth past the age of 40, you’re a lot more likely to need interventions like a C-section, forceps, or vacuum delivery. The chances of needing a c-section double for women aged over 40.
Here are some of the reasons:
But don’t let minor side effects scare you. Assisted birth interventions and C-sections are safe and usually bring favorable birth outcomes. Here’s what you should know regarding the risks of birth interventions.
The risks to your health
When you have an intervention like vacuum or forceps delivery, it can raise the risk that you’ll have a 3rd or 4th degree vaginal tear, which takes longer to heal and can cause temporary incontinence. You’re also at a higher risk for blood clots, so it’s even more important to keep moving, and you ought to consider wearing compression socks. If you follow medical advice postpartum, however, you’re unlikely to experience any long-term effects.
A C-section is a surgical procedure, so like any surgery, there are risks of infection, surgical injury, and having a reaction to the anesthesia. But that said, the risks of serious harm following a c-section are very low. Choose a doctor whom you can trust, and follow all the advice you’re given about post-surgery care.
The risks to your baby’s health
It’s rare for a baby born through a C-section or assisted delivery to suffer any serious or long-term ill effects. After a forceps or vacuum delivery, your baby might have marks on their head and/or face, and/or small cuts on the face and scalp, but these all heal quickly. Some babies develop jaundice after an assisted birth.
After a C-section, a few babies develop transient tachypnea, which is a breathing problem, but it too resolves itself within a few days.
Conceiving a healthy child
The older you are when you conceive, the higher the chances of having a baby with a chromosomal defect. That’s because your eggs are older too, and their quality isn’t as high as for younger eggs. Older eggs are less likely to divide correctly during gestation, and that’s what causes chromosomal defects.
The most common chromosomal defect is Down’s syndrome, also known as trisomy 21. It’s what happens when the 21st chromosome produces three copies of itself in every cell, instead of just two. The risk of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome is 1 in 1,250 if you’re aged 25, but it’s 1 in 100 when you’re 40 years old, and 1 in 60 by age 42.
If you use your own eggs that you froze when you were younger, you can lower this risk. It’s also particularly important to carry out prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome and other chromosomal issues once you’ve passed 40.
Overall, studies have found that babies born to mothers aged over 40 are 35% more likely to spend time in intensive care, more likely to have a low birth weight, and 70% more likely to be born with a medical issue.
There are a number of conditions which women can develop during pregnancy, and your risk of experiencing them does rise when you’re over 40. But much depends on how healthy you are before you get pregnant, and how well you take care of your health during pregnancy.
If you’re otherwise healthy and fit, you don’t have high blood pressure or other chronic health conditions, and you’ve conceived naturally, there’s no reason why your pregnancy should be higher risk than that of the 30-year-old in the next room.
Preeclampsia is a serious condition that’s caused by having high blood pressure, and can develop into organ damage. When you’re pregnant, the strain on your heart goes up massively, plus your body produces more progesterone which also pushes up your blood pressure and cholesterol. For women who already have high blood pressure or heart issues, that’s sometimes enough to cause preeclampsia.
Your blood pressure (hypertension) generally increases as you get older, and a lot of people aren’t even aware that they have borderline hypertension. When you’re aged over 40, the risks of developing preeclampsia shift from 3-4% to 5-10%.
But there are steps you can take to lower the risk:
Women who are over 40 are four times more likely to develop gestational diabetes — a type of diabetes that only affects pregnant women — than younger women. It goes away after you give birth, but it can increase the risks of developing type-II diabetes postpartum.
You can reduce your risk, however, by paying attention to your diet. Cut the amount of sugar, red meat, and high-cholesterol foods you eat, and increase the amount of fiber. One study found that women who ate 10 grams more fiber per day lowered their risk of gestational diabetes by 26%.
Exercise also helps decrease the risks of gestational diabetes. Studies found that women who were the most active before getting pregnant cut their risk of developing gestational diabetes by up to 55%, and exercising in early pregnancy can also help lower your odds. It seems that the exercise you do before getting pregnant has a bigger impact than exercising during pregnancy.
Placenta praevia happens when the placenta doesn’t move up and away from the opening of the uterus. It can cause a rupture, leading to severe bleeding and possibly preterm labor.
Placenta praevia occurs when your blood (vascular) system can’t support the uterus to expand enough to accommodate your baby. Older women have a higher risk of vascular disease, which in turn increases your risk of placenta praevia.
There’s no specific treatment or cure for placenta praevia, although maintaining a healthy lifestyle which protects your heart and vascular system can help. It’s important to consult your doctor if you have any vaginal bleeding, and get regular ultrasounds so that placenta praevia can be spotted before it causes a serious health issue.
If your doctors suspects placenta praevia, they will avoid performing vaginal exams and recommend that you avoid sex and exercise, to reduce the risk of triggering a hemorrage. In some cases, you might be put on bed rest for the remainder of your pregnancy, to help make sure that you reach term and deliver your baby safely.
Although the risks are higher when you become a mother after the age of 40, there’s no reason to give up on starting a family, either through IVF or by conceiving naturally. Take steps to live as healthy and active a lifestyle as possible, both before and during pregnancy, and carry out all the health checks and screenings recommended by your doctor. We hope your pregnancy and birth go as smoothly as possible.
If you’re over age 35 and you don’t yet have children, you’ve probably had at least one interfering person remind you that you’d better hurry up because your fertility will decline. No one ever says that to men, of course. Menopause is like a ticking time bomb for women who want to start a family, but men don’t have the same finish line for their fertility.
Or do they?
Men can produce sperm throughout their lives, so there is no “male menopause” when men can’t have children any longer. But that said, studies have shown that male fertility does decline with age.
If a man is over age 45, it can take five times longer for he and his partner to conceive than if he was aged 25 or under. When the man is over 40, he and his partner are 30% less likely to conceive during a 12-month period than if the man is under 30.
Male age affects IVF success rates too. One study found that when both the man and the woman are aged 35-39, they have a conception rate of 29%, but that drops to 18% if the woman is aged 35-39 but her partner is five or more years older.
Women tend to see their fertility drop off steeply in their late 30s and 40s, but for men, fertility lessens much more gradually, and from a later age. Male fertility generally starts to fall in their 40s and through their 50s.
A French study found that women’s reproductive capability drops from age 35, but for men it’s only from about age 40. Other research concluded that before age 34, there was no noticeable change in sperm concentration, sperm motility, sperm morphology, or sperm volume, but that after 40, sperm concentration and sperm morphology had both declined.
There are two main ways that male fertility can decline over time:
Scientists have also found that as men age, sperm shows increasing DNA fragmentation, which in turn increase the chromosomal defects that trigger miscarriage.
When men struggle to achieve erection, it’s referred to erectile dysfunction. Without an erection, a man can’t naturally ejaculate the sperm which fertilize the egg and achieve conception. ED can have a number of causes, including insufficient testosterone and poor blood circulation. The risks of severe ED rise 300% between the ages of 40 and 70, and those of moderate ED by 200%.
As men get older, their hormonal balance changes and testosterone levels drop. The decline begins at around the age of 40, which is much later than the age when female fertility begins to decline, but it’s still significant.
Testosterone is the hormone that controls men’s libido, ability to ejaculate, and the ability to achieve and hold an erection. Total testosterone declines at around 0.8% per year, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) increases at 1.6% per year, which scientists speculate further reduces testosterone levels.
By now, scientists agree that sperm quality decreases with age, but there’s less agreement about exactly why and how that takes place. The drop in testosterone certainly plays a role. Leydig cells in the testes generate very high levels of testosterone which produce sperm, but those Leydig cells drop in number with age.
There are a number of factors which affect sperm and semen health. (Sperm is what fertilizes the egg, and semen is the liquid which holds the sperm.) The main issues are:
It’s still unclear whether sperm concentration falls significantly. Some scientists even think that sperm concentration may increase slightly with age.
There are studies that show that sperm morphology can decline by anything up to 0.9% per year, with a total change of up to 18% over 20 years. Sperm shape affects the sperm’s ability to fertilize the egg. The more that it varies from the normal, the harder it will be for conception to take place. However, sperm morphology is difficult to research with confidence, because the data can vary a lot between studies.
Scientists are far more concerned about the way that changes to sperm motility affects male fertility. According to the most recent research, sperm motility could drop by 0.8%/year of age for every year of age. In fact, 40% of men aged 40-60 have low motile sperm, in contrast with just 20% of 20-30 year olds and 17% of 30-40 year olds.
Other issues that cause sperm health to decline are a drop in semen volume, and a loss of strength in vesicular function, which means that the semen is ejaculated much more weakly and doesn’t travel as far.
Women are born with a finite number of eggs, but men keep on producing sperm throughout their lives. Every time that sperm is made, it reproduces the male DNA, and with every replication there’s a risk of mutations, or DNA fragmentation. As men get older, DNA fragmentation increases.
A rise in DNA fragmentation also means a rise in chromosomal abnormalities, which can cause health defects, low birth weight, and miscarriage or stillbirth. The risk of miscarriage in the first trimester is 25% higher when the father is over 35, even if the mother is under 30. Another study found that babies born to fathers aged 45 or over were more likely to be born premature and more likely to have a low birth weight and Apgar score than those born to younger fathers. Additionally, babies with fathers aged over 55 were more likely to need assisted ventilation and to be admitted to a NICU.
Bear in mind that the older you are, the more time you’ve had to be exposed to toxins, germs, and to develop conditions that can affect fertility. The authors of one study observe that “the risk of developing a medical condition or of being exposed to environmental toxins increases with age.”
Some of the environmental issues that can affect male fertility include:
Endocrine disruptors are found in many common items both at home and at work. These are materials that disrupt the release of the sex hormones which control sperm production and erectile function. Some serious endocrine disruptors include:
Other chemicals that affect the hormonal balance include pesticides, DDE, diesel fumes, lead, and paint thinners. Traffic fumes can also affect sperm count, motility, and vitality.
Sperm production works best when the testes are a couple of degrees cooler than typical body temperature, but a lot of men work in hot environments like factories, garages, etc. which raise testicular temperature. When the testes are too hot, they are more likely to produce sperm that’s the wrong shape, affecting sperm motility.
Male fertility problems are often linked to other health conditions, like obesity, cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and kidney disease. Heart disease and hypertension, for example, affect vascular health and increase the risks of ED. Obesity can affect the hormonal balance. All of these conditions are more likely to affect older men rather than younger men.
Common medications like spironolactone and calcium channel blockers prescribed for hypertension, H2 blockers prescribed for stomach ulcers, and antiandrogen treatments (flutamide) for the prostate can all have side effects that affect sperm production.
Like with other health issues, maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding known toxins can make a difference to male reproductive health. If you’re having trouble conceiving, it’s also worth considering if there’s something in your workplace or home environment that could be affecting your fertility.
However, no one can (or should try to) avoid getting older, and it’s inevitable that male fertility will decrease somewhat with age. If you’re a man aged over 40 and you and your partner are struggling to conceive, it’s worth it to check if there’s anything that could be affecting your fertility levels as well as investigating female fertility.
Whether you use IVF, donor sperm, or natural conception to build your family, we hope your experience is as smooth as possible.
Most couples discuss when might be the ideal time to start a family. Although everyone would love to be told exactly when is the best time to have a child, the truth is that there’s no single perfect moment when you should try to conceive.
There are always a lot of variables to consider, including:
It’s important to explore these issues. Although there’s no perfect time, there are indeed periods in your life which would be more suitable to raising a child, and times when it would be better to wait. Here are some of the issues to consider before you plan to start a family.
Ideally, it would be best to wait to start a family until your lifestyle is established and there are no major changes expected in the next year or two.
This isn’t just because you want to raise your child in a stable environment, but also because big changes to your life always increase stress and anxiety. That’s true even for positive changes, like moving to the region where you always wished to live or switching careers to pursue your dream job.
It’s still unclear whether stress has a significant effect on your fertility, but scientists do think that increased levels of the stress hormones alpha-amylase and cortisol could interfere with the production of GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone), which is responsible for the release of sex hormones. A US-based study found that women who have the highest levels of alpha-amylase took 29% longer to get pregnant than those with the lowest levels, and different research concluded that for men, stress affects sperm shape and speed.
You should also never decide to try for a child as a way of fixing a problematic relationship. Again, not just because you might not have resolved your issues by the time your baby is born, but also because the added stress can affect fertility.
Many people struggle with mental health disorders like anxiety and depression, and worry that these could stop them from starting a family. The good news is that there is no reason why you can’t have a healthy baby and a happy family even while struggling with anxiety or depression.
However, both anxiety and depression can make it take longer for you to conceive naturally.
Anxiety could raise your stress hormone levels, and may be caused by an imbalance in the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone. Depression can disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which controls the menstrual cycle, or disrupt the luteinizing hormone which regulates ovulation.
If you’re suffering from depression or anxiety, and it’s not yet under control with medication or lifestyle changes, it is better to wait until you have received medical help and balanced your mental health.
In general, if you or your partner are scared about having a baby, wrestle with anger management problems or psychosis, or a mental or emotional health disorder that affects your daily life, it’s not a good time to start a family. Simply trying for a baby can be stressful on its own and could adversely affect your state of mind, while caring for a new baby, and then a toddler, can be the last straw if you’re already depressed, anxious, or experiencing mood swings.
It’s best to consult with your healthcare provider to improve and stabilize your mental and emotional health, before you begin or expand your family.
Most temporary illnesses don’t affect female fertility, so a cold, cough, or flu isn’t a reason to wait to start a family, although you might not feel much like having sex when you’re feeling ill. However, male fertility can be affected by a high fever (38.8°C and up) that continues for three days or more. The high body temperature can depress sperm production for up to six months, but it does recover with time.
Some chronic illnesses can reduce male and/or female fertility, including:
Other conditions don’t affect your fertility but can increase your risk of miscarriage or stillbirth. Women who have heart or kidney conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure and other auto-immune disorders, are generally considered to be high-risk, and are therefore kept under careful observation during their pregnancy. If you fall into any of these categories, it’s wise to consult with your doctor before you start trying to conceive.
If you have lupus, you should plan your pregnancy carefully. The CDC advises that you make sure that your disease is under control or in remission for at least six months before you conceive. Getting pregnant while you have active lupus can cause serious health problems for you and/or your baby or lead to miscarriage or stillbirth.
If you’re taking certain medications, they could make it harder for you to conceive. These include:
Most of these effects are reversed once you stop taking the medication. If you’re on any of these medications, you may prefer to wait to try for a baby until after you finish taking them.
Your age is definitely going to affect your timing. Although you can still get pregnant when you are aged 40+, your fertility declines faster once you reach the age of 32, and drops faster still from age 37.
Additionally, when you’re over 35 your risk of having a miscarriage or stillbirth increases significantly. One study found that for women in their early 20s, 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, but that rises to 18% when you’re over 35 and 34% if you’re in your early 40s.
That means that if you’re approaching 35, you might want to consider your options including both trying for a baby soon, or potentially freezing eggs for a later date. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) recommends that if you are aged over 35 and you haven’t become pregnant within six months of unprotected sex, you should begin evaluation for infertility treatment, rather than waiting the standard 12 months.
If you received radiation therapy for cancer or other illness, you have PCOS, fibroids, or endometriosis, or you’ve had an STI in the past, the American College of Gynaecologists suggests seeing a fertility advisor straight away. They can help you plan the best times to get pregnant and give you advice about IVF and egg freezing.
Many doctors advise freezing your eggs before undergoing any kind of treatment which could affect your ability to get pregnant in the future. Egg freezing means that your eggs are collected, frozen and stored securely until you are ready to start a family, when fertility doctors will help you through the IVF process. If you freeze your eggs when you are young and healthy, it greatly increases your chances of success later on when you’re ready to undergo treatment, even if you have conditions like those mentioned above which make it difficult to get pregnant naturally.
Although there’s no perfect time to start a family, there are many good options. What matters most is that you both feel that the time is right. Whenever that may be, we hope that your path to parenthood goes smoothly.
If you’re trying to start a family or hope to have more children, and you’re approaching (or passed) the big 4-0, you’re bound to have heard at least once that it’s a lot more risky to have a baby when you’re the other side of 40.
Actually, you’ve probably heard it many, many times. It pushes your stress and anxiety levels sky high, but is there any real truth to it? And if so, just how much risk are you facing if you get pregnant after the “big 40 deadline”?
Many IVF clinics won’t treat women over the age of 50, because the risks are simply too high. The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine advises doctors against IVF for women over age 50. But if you’re aged between 40 and 50, and you’re eager to have a family, how safe is it to do so? No one can give you a definitive answer, but here are the main risks to consider.
First of all, your background health makes a huge difference to the risks you and your baby could face. If you’re healthy, have no chronic conditions like high blood pressure, and conceived naturally, there’s no reason why your pregnancy should be higher risk than if you were a decade younger. Women who have some background health issues and conceived with the help of IVF could have a very different experience.
The older you are, the higher your risks of developing certain common complications of pregnancy, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and placenta previa.
Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy condition that is caused by high blood pressure. It can cause permanent organ damage and is potentially fatal for both the mother and the fetus. The only way to treat it is to deliver your baby, but that poses its own dangers for a baby that hasn’t yet reached full term.
Blood pressure (hypertension) generally rises with age, and many women have borderline hypertension without being aware of it.
Being pregnant puts a huge strain on your heart, far more than even strenuous exercise. At the same time, your body produces more of the reproductive hormone progesterone, which raises your blood pressure and cholesterol. If your blood pressure is already borderline or high, or you have heart issues, this can be enough to push you into preeclampsia.
If you’re aged 40+, your risk of developing preeclampsia jumps from 1.5% to 4.6%. However, if you’re otherwise healthy and your blood pressure is good or low, your age only slightly increases your chances of developing preeclampsia.
Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that only affects pregnant women. Although you can develop it at any age, even when you eat a healthy diet, you’re four times more likely to experience it when you’re over 40 than when you’re in your 20s or early 30s.
During pregnancy, your uterus has to expand massively to accommodate the fetus, which requires a healthy and effective blood (vascular) system. The older you are, the greater your risk of vascular disease, which affects major organs like the uterus, as well as your heart.
If your vascular system isn’t operating at full power, you might develop placenta praevia, which is when the placenta doesn’t move up and away from the opening of the uterus. As it tries to expand, it can rupture, causing severe bleeding and bringing on premature labor.
Women over 40 have a seriously increased risk of placenta praevia, compared with women under 30.
Anything that affects your health, as the gestating mother, can also affect the health of your unborn child. Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and placenta praevia can all bring on preterm labor, which could harm your baby.
Studies have also found that if you’re giving birth for the first time at age 40 or over, the baby’s birth weight is likely to be significantly lower.
Overall, one study found that babies born to mothers aged over 40 were 35% more likely to need to spend time in intensive care, and 70% more likely to be born with some medical anomaly.
As you get older, your eggs get older too. That makes it harder for you to conceive, because there are fewer follicles left to develop into eggs, but it also affects the quality of the eggs that remain. Lower quality eggs are less likely to divide correctly during gestation, increasing the risk of chromosomal defects.
Down’s syndrome, or trisomy 21, is the best known and most common type of chromosomal defect. It happens when the 21st chromosome divides into three copies instead of just two, in every cell. When you’re aged 25, the risk of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome is just 1 in 1,250, but that rises to 1 in 400 at age 35 and 1 in 100 at age 40. By the time you’re 42, you have a 1 in 60 chance of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome, and a 1 in 12 chance at age 49.
Other less-common chromosomal defects include trisomy 13, or Patau’s syndrome, and the even rarer Edward’s syndrome or trisomy 18.
Older women are far more likely to suffer a miscarriage than younger women.
If you’re aged 30, the risk that your pregnancy will end in miscarriage is around 18%, but it rises to 38% if you’re 40, and almost doubles to 70% for women aged 45.
It’s not always clear why this happens. Chromosomal defects often trigger a miscarriage, and those are more common among mothers aged 40+. Another issue is that the older you are,
the more likely it is that you’ve developed a chronic condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or thyroid disease, which can complicate your pregnancy and increase the risk of pregnancy loss.
The risks of stillbirth also rise, especially once you pass your due date.
Up until 39 weeks of gestation, a 40-year old woman has a similar stillbirth rate to that of a woman in her 20s at 41 weeks. But once you pass week 39, your risks of stillbirth spike to double those of a woman aged 35. That’s why it’s better to induce labour in women aged 40+ once they reach their due date.
For a variety of reasons, women aged over 40 are more likely to experience complicated birth that requires interventions like forceps, vacuum, or a caesarean section. Some of the reasons include:
You’re approximately twice as likely to need a c-section if you’re over 40.
Although c-sections and assisted deliveries usually bring favorable birth outcomes, it’s worth remembering that it takes longer to recover from a c-section than from a vaginal birth, and that assisted deliveries like forceps increase your risk of tearing.
Oddly enough, yes. When you’re over 40, you’re naturally more likely to have a multiple pregnancy, although scientists aren’t sure why.
A multiple pregnancy can increase your risk of miscarriage. Multiple pregnancies are also more likely to be born with a low birth weight, which is associated with complications like cerebral palsy and learning difficulties, and 5% more likely to develop congenital anomalies.
In general, maternal mortality is 2.5 times higher for multiple births than when you give birth to a singleton baby.
There’s some evidence that women who have a baby aged over 40 are more likely to develop certain health complications after giving birth. If you’ve had gestational diabetes, you’re at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes postpartum.
That said, although the higher risks of having a baby when you’re over 40 are real and serious, celebrating your 40th birthday isn’t in itself a reason to decide not to start or add to your family.
If you’re trying to get pregnant, either naturally or through IVF, it’s best to have a thorough screening first so that you’ll be prepared to deal with the impact of any health risks on your pregnancy and birth. And if you’re already pregnant, do take all the health checks and screenings recommended by your doctor. We wish that your pregnancy and birth experience is as smooth and healthy as possible.
If you’re trying to start a family, you are probably vaguely aware of the onset of menopause as you consider your timing. It’s like a huge “end” sign in the race to have children. For most women, menopause occurs between 45 and 55 (on average at 51), but some women find that it appears much earlier than expected, which could potentially throw a wrench into your family planning preferences.
Doctors distinguish between early menopause, which happens between the ages of 40 and 45, and premature menopause, also called premature ovarian failure (POF) or premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), which occurs before the age of forty.
Studies have found that around 5% of women experience early menopause, and another 1% experience premature menopause.
For many women, early or premature menopause is idiopathic, which means that there’s no known medical cause. That said, there are a number of issues that can lead to early menopause or POI:
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy often bring on menopause because the treatment can damage your ovaries and stop them from ovulating. In these situations, it’s possible for your body to recover and begin ovulating again, although you might still struggle to get pregnant because of other ways that the treatment impacted your reproductive organs.
Genetic and chromosomal disorders, like Turner’s syndrome, can affect the ovaries from birth and bring on early or premature menopause.
Autoimmune diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid diseases are signs that your immune system has malfunctioned in some way and is attacking your body instead of the disease. In these cases, your immune system could also attack your ovaries and prevent them from working properly.
Infections, like mumps, malaria, and tuberculosis, can damage the ovaries, but this is very rare. HIV and AIDS that are not controlled properly with medication can also bring on menopause.
Surgery to remove the ovaries inevitably causes menopause.
Smoking can speed up the degeneration of follicles (premature eggs). A woman is born with one million follicles on average, and these slowly dwindle over time. Follicles aren’t just used up through ovulation and menstruation; they go through a process called atresia, which means that the egg follicles simply degenerate and die. If you smoke, you speed up this process.
A Danish study found that there’s a link between your mother’s age at menopause, and your own ovarian reserve, which means the number of eggs that remain in your body. If you have a family history of early menopause, you’re likely to have a lower ovarian reserve than average, have trouble conceiving at a younger age than average, and experience menopause yourself at an earlier age than average.
It’s rare for menopause to occur completely overnight (in fact, that would only happen if your ovaries were surgically removed). Women go through a period called perimenopause, which is when you’re still ovulating, but far less frequently. During this time, your periods become irregular and spaced further apart.
Perimenopause can last as long as six years or more, and during this time it is still possible to get pregnant, but it’s far more difficult.. One study found that between 2.2% and 14.2% of the women involved conceived naturally and gave birth to a healthy baby.
If your periods become noticeably longer or shorter than usual, or stop entirely for three cycles, you could be entering perimenopause. You might also see some of the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, and joint pains.
Once you’ve gone through menopause, you won’t be able to conceive naturally, but you can still successfully start a family by using IVF with either donor eggs, or your own eggs that you froze at an earlier point in life.
You might have heard about hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, which is often recommended for women who experience early menopause. However, HRT is only prescribed to address various other health issues associated with menopause, like osteoporosis and an increased risk of cancer, in addition to managing its symptoms. It doesn’t improve your fertility.
If you:
it’s wise to consider freezing your eggs as soon as possible.
When you freeze your eggs in your 20s or 30s, egg quality is higher, which improves your chances of success when you use them later to get pregnant via IVF. Egg quality can drop well before menopause, which means that even if you do get pregnant during perimenopause, you’ll have a higher risk of miscarriage and of the egg failing to divide properly, resulting in the wrong number of chromosomes in each cell in the embryo.
The chances of going through early or premature menopause is something that you should bear in mind when you think about your path to growing a family. We hope that whatever you choose, your journey to parenthood is smooth and successful.
We all know that carrying too much weight can affect many areas of our health, but research has found that being overweight can also have a significant impact on your fertility. There are at least 3 ways that your weight affects your chances of becoming pregnant:
íWhen it comes to fertility, your weight is measured according to your BMI, or body mass index. In general:
The main way that extra weight affects fertility is by potentially disrupting your menstrual cycle.
Your menstrual cycle is regulated by a delicate balance of hormones produced by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, and those glands stimulate your ovaries. The most important hormone is gonadotropin releasing hormone, or GnRH. It stimulates the production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), which starts egg development within the ovaries and raises your oestrogen levels, and leutinizing hormone (LH), which helps mature those eggs and release them on time.
Normally, the hypothalamus releases GnRH every one to two hours in a steady rhythm, but when you are overweight, the extra fatty tissue produces its own hormone, called leptin, which interrupts GnRH production and disrupts the entire menstrual cycle. The more extra fat you carry, especially when it’s around your abdomen, the more leptin your body produces.
Obesity also causes a drop in the production of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and growth hormone (GH), both of which are also involved in stimulating your ovaries to produce the right levels of androgen and oestrogen. According to one study, women who are obese are far less likely to conceive naturally within one year than women who are in the normal weight range.
Obesity can even lead to anovulation, which means that your ovaries simply stop producing eggs entirely because of the disruption to the hormonal balance. Women with a BMI over 27 are three times more likely to have stopped ovulating than women with a normal BMI.
Researchers are still investigating a link between obesity and a drop in egg quality, but it seems likely that even if you’re still ovulating, obesity decreases the quality of your eggs. As the egg divides repeatedly, it’s more likely to divide abnormally, generating eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes, and/or to fail to fertilize correctly.
A different study discovered that for every extra BMI point you have above 29, your chances of getting pregnant within 1 year drops by around 5%.
Scientists have also found that once you become pregnant, obesity can affect your chances of completing the pregnancy and giving birth to a healthy baby. According to the NHS, women who are obese have higher rates of miscarriage, higher risk of developing gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and preeclampsia, and are more likely to experience complications when giving birth. The higher your BMI, the greater the risk.
A study found that even a little extra weight can have a surprising impact on miscarriages during IVF. Thirty-eight percent of women with a BMI of 25 or above miscarried during the first trimester, compared with 20% of women with a healthy BMI.
One more thing to bear in mind is that weight gain can cause infertility in men, too. Research indicates that men who are overweight, with a BMI above 25, have a 22% drop in sperm count and 24% drop in sperm concentrations. On top of that, testosterone levels fall when your BMI increases, which reduces the sex drive.
Weight isn’t the only thing that affects your fertility, and fibroids may complicate the process of conceiving, but if you’re struggling to conceive, and you have ruled out any other issues that could be preventing you from getting pregnant, you might want to consider losing weight.
We hope that your journey to pregnancy and parenthood goes smoothly and well.
If you’re trying to start a family, or you hope to have children one day but you’re not currently in a position to do so, you’ve probably had people tell you that you need to start before you’re 35, because once you’re over that age you’ll seriously struggle.
It increases your stress and anxiety to hear that, but is there any truth in it? Exactly how hard is it to get pregnant after the age of 35, and should you keep your hopes up?
Like many things, the answer is more complicated than people make it sound.
It’s impossible to draw a line in time and say that after this date, your fertility plummets. Instead, what happens is that your fertility begins to drop gradually from your late 20s. The rate of decline speeds up once you get to 32, and then it speeds up again at about age 37.
By the time you reach the age of 40, your fertility has dropped significantly. It’s still possible to get pregnant, but it might take a lot longer than you expected.
Here are some statistics to explain things more clearly. One large study looked at pregnancy rates for women if they have sexual intercourse on their most fertile day. It found that:
To put it another away, you have a 25% chance of conceiving each month when you’re in your 20s, but only a 5% chance each month when you’re in your 40s.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, only that it’s less likely.
Another way of calculating fertility is by tracking how long it takes for a woman to conceive and give birth. Using this method, it was estimated that:
Given these statistics, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) recommends that you should begin evaluation for infertility if you haven’t become pregnant within 12 months of unprotected sex if you’re under 35, or six months if you’re older than 35.
When we talk about the difficulty of getting pregnant over the age of 35, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about conception rates.
The older you are, the higher your chances of miscarriage or stillbirth.
The risk of a baby with serious birth defects, which might lead you to consider an abortion, also rises over the age of 35. According to one study, 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriage for women in their early 20s, but that rises to 18% for women over 35, and 34% for women in their early 40s.
That means that you have a 40% risk of losing your baby when you’re 40, but only a 15% risk when you’re in your 20s. This is mainly because as you age, the quality of your eggs drops as well as the quantity. With a drop in egg quality comes a higher risk that a fertilized egg won’t divide correctly, leading to chromosomal defects.
The main reason why your fertility drops by around this age is because you don’t have very many eggs left. Women are born with around 1 million eggs, but by the time you reach puberty there are only about 300,000-400,000 remaining. This number gradually drops, and by the time you’re 35 there are only a few dozen that could be suitable for fertilization. You could begin to have menstrual cycles where no egg is released.
When you’re older, there’s also a greater chance that you’ve had some kind of surgery or infection that could have affected your fertility by leaving scars around the cervix or fallopian tubes. You’re also more likely to have developed conditions such as endometriosis or uterine fibroids, which make it much harder to become pregnant.
As you age, you also experience a natural decline in cervical mucus, which plays a key role in conception by helping sperm through the cervix and into the uterus and fallopian tubes so that it can fertilize the egg.
Once you’re over 35, every year can affect your chances of success in becoming a parent, so it’s important to seek medical assistance as soon as you see that you’re having difficulty conceiving. Whether you continue your path to building your family through IVF, donor eggs/sperm, or natural conception, we hope that your experience is as smooth as possible.
It’s not just the woman’s age that affects your chances of conceiving a baby naturally. The age of the man also plays a role.
Male fertility doesn’t decline as quickly as female fertility, but the time men are in their late 30s it has dropped noticeably. One study found that women aged 35-39 with a partner in the same age bracket have a conception rate of 29%, but if her partner is five or more years older, their conception rate is only 18%.
People will tell you to attempt conception before the “magic” age. As we’ve shown, there is no predetermined number where your fertility (or your partner’s) will drop. That said, the chance to conceive and carry a healthy baby to term drops as you age, as your partner ages, as you have less viable eggs available, as the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth increase. It’s best to attempt conception earlier, but there’s no magic formula - or age - to ensure success.
