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It’s widely known that the toxins and chemicals in cigarette smoke can affect your fertility, and that if you want to become pregnant, it’s best to stop smoking.
But cigarette smoke isn’t the only source of harmful chemicals that can make it hard for couples to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby. As science advances, scientists learn more about the ways that regular products that you use at home every day can interact with your reproductive health.
There are 3 main ways that environmental toxins can harm your fertility, but bear in mind that some products can affect you in more ways than one:
Each one of us is exposed to millions of chemicals every day, and no one is certain just how many of them could impact on fertility. It’s estimated that each pregnant woman in the US is exposed to over 43 different chemicals on a regular basis.
Here are some of the most common products that you’re likely to have at home and could contain chemicals that can make it harder for you to conceive.
Old pipe networks and paint compounds used to contain high levels of lead, which can damage the reproductive system. For example, the headline-grabbing health crisis in Flint, MI, in 2015 was caused by lead leaching out of old pipes and into the water supply.
If you live in an old house which hasn’t had the paint replaced since the 1970s, the chances are high that it’s lead-based. Oil-based paints, paint thinner, and painting supplies can contain lead and mercury, but newer paints aren’t 100% safe, either. Latex-based paints can be made with ethylene glycol ethers and biocides, which can disrupt the menstrual cycle, decrease sperm quality, and increase the risk of miscarriage.
The chemicals in paint don’t have much impact on your health if they are already on the walls, but they can affect you if you start scraping them off or putting on a fresh coat of paint. That’s when you’ll either create fine particles of dried paint or release paint fumes into the air, which can be easily breathed in.
Many household cleaning products and detergents contain:
Heavy metals have been linked to increased incidence of miscarriage, uterine fibroids, and hormonal disorders which affect fertility.
Triclosan is an endocrine disruptor which raises thyroid hormone levels, affecting fertility in men and women, and can also increase breast cancer. It’s found in many antibacterial soaps as well as household cleaners.
Chlorinated hydrocarbons are used in cleaning agents, pesticides, and the manufacture of PVC items. Women with the highest levels of PCBs have a 50% decrease in their ability to get pregnant, and are far more likely to miscarry when they do become pregnant.
If you live in a busy city or close to a main road, you’re likely to be breathing in a lot of traffic fumes which contain heavy metals, particulate matter, and other harmful chemicals. There’s a slight but definite link between the distance a woman lives from a highway, and her fertility levels.
Traffic fumes affect male fertility too, with motor vehicle exhaust emissions found to affect sperm count, motility, and vitality. .
Organic solvents like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) are used as fire retardants. They can affect thyroid balance and sex hormone production, which in turn damages the menstrual cycle and ovulation in women.
One study of PFRs among 211 women undergoing IVF found that women with the highest concentrations saw their chances of successful fertilization drop by 10%, of embryo implantation falling by 31%, and a 38% drop in live births.
PFRs and PBDEs are used in:
They are very prevalent in the US and are already in most people’s bloodstreams.
Phthalates and parabens, which are serious endocrine disruptors, are used in a massive number of different household and personal products.
You’ll find them in:
Phthalates and parabens are among the most harmful chemicals for reproductive health, and what’s worse is that they are truly everywhere. Over 97% of Americans have a detectable level of phthalates in their bloodstream, even though phthalates are quickly excreted from the body, because they are so prevalent that blood-chemical levels are replenished just as swiftly.
Many studies over the past several years have linked higher phthalate levels to lower chances of successful IVF outcomes, and increased miscarriage risk both for natural pregnancies and those enabled by IVF. In April 2020, researchers warned that pre-conception phthalate exposure could be a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Men with high phthalate levels show damage to sperm.
It’s important to read the labels on cosmetics and look for items that are paraben-free and fragrance-free. It's also a good idea to regularly air your house to get rid of any build-up of fumes, and choose nail polish brands that don’t contain acetone. Although nail polish choices will only prove problematic if you paint your nails weekly or more often.
An astonishing number of plastic products contain BPA (Bisphenol A) or the almost equally harmful Bisphenol S (BPS). Like phthalates and parabens, these are endocrine distributors that affect male and female reproductive fertility.
In men, high BPA levels can drag down sperm count, sperm vitality and motility, and sperm concentration, while in women it can damage tissue in the uterus, ovaries, and the hypothalamus and pituitary gland which govern sex hormone production.
BPA is used in many different types of plastics, including:
BPA is also used to coat sales receipts, so it’s best not to handle them with wet hands and to throw them out ASAP. You should avoid heating up food in soft plastic containers or covering it with cling wrap, because BPA chemicals and phthalates too transfer when they are heated. Use glass or ceramic dishes to reheat food, and cover it with a paper towel instead of plastic.
Unless you buy organic food, all your produce, meat, and dairy is likely to contain some pesticides. If an all-organic diet is impossible, it’s still worthwhile to do what you can to cut your exposure to pesticides as much as possible.
Pesticides can damage sperm quality and quantity, act as endocrine disruptors, and affect fetal development leading to miscarriage. A study of women in Ontario, Canada, found that when pesticides use rose, fertility fell. Washing produce before eating it can help, and if you’re involved in gardening or farming you should also stay away from pesticide usage.
You can also help cut the level of phthalates in your food by avoiding processed foods and takeout food that are sold in soft plastic packaging.
You can’t always remove all the multiple factors that have an impact on your fertility, but the more that you can reduce them, the better.
Checking the products you bring into your home to make sure that none of them contain dangerous parabens, phthalates, BPA, or other harmful chemicals, and trying to stay away from thing that would adversely affect you, can help remove obstacles in your path to starting a family, whether you’re using IVF or hoping to get pregnant.
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.
Maintaining good health is always a concern, but when you’re pregnant or trying to conceive, the world can feel like it’s full of germs and infections.
It’s an understandable feeling. There are some diseases and bacteria which can cause serious problems for you and/or your baby, but that healthy people would ordinarily shrug off.
But most of these health threats can be kept away by following good hygiene practices and getting vaccinations on time. Here are some of the diseases that can be harmful during pregnancy, and what you can do to protect yourself and your baby.
Chickenpox is usually harmless for children, but it can cause serious damage if you catch it while you’re pregnant. If you get infected with chickenpox before your 28th week of pregnancy, there’s a 2% chance that your baby could develop foetal varicella syndrome (FVS), which can harm their skin, eyes, legs, arms, brain, bladder and bowel.
If you catch it between 28 and 36 weeks, your baby will be infected too, but he/she won’t be born with any symptoms. However, it could become active while your child is still a baby or toddler, and cause painful shingles.
If you catch chickenpox after week 36, your baby will be infected and could be born with active chickenpox.
If you didn’t catch and recover from chickenpox yourself as a child, you should get vaccinated before you start trying to conceive.
Whooping cough (pertussis) has been rising in the last few years, with a serious epidemic in 2012 that saw 10 times as many cases as normal in the UK, and more annual cases than any year in the last 60 years in the US.
Whooping cough isn’t dangerous during pregnancy, but it can be fatal for your new baby. Babies under 6 months are too young to be vaccinated against the disease, but they are protected by your antibodies.
You were probably vaccinated against whooping cough when you were a child, but by the time you come to start a family, your antibody levels have dropped. They are usually high enough to protect you from the disease, but don’t provide enough protection for your newborn baby.
That’s why public health authorities in many countries recommend that women get a booster shot some time between 16 and 32 weeks of pregnancy.
It takes 2 weeks for antibody levels to peak and transfer to your baby. Then your baby has whooping cough antibodies in their own system to keep them safe until they can be vaccinated themselves.
CMV, or cytomegalovirus, is a common virus that’s part of the same family of diseases as cold sores and chickenpox. Once you’ve caught CMV, it remains dormant in your system but it can be reactivated if you get exposed to the virus again.
Most people catch CMV and have nothing more than a cold. But if you catch it or get reinfected when you’re pregnant, your baby could be born with congenital CMV, which can cause blindness or visual impairment, hearing loss, epilepsy, learning difficulties, or more serious birth defects. CMV can also cause stillbirth. It’s worst for babies whose mothers hadn’t been infected with CMV before, and catch it for the first time during pregnancy.
CMV is only harmful to your baby if it’s active while you're pregnant. The dormant virus isn’t dangerous.
Around 1 out of 150 babies is born with congenital CMV, and around 20% of those have birth defects or long-term health problems. Disabilities caused by CMV are more common than those caused by Down’s syndrome, spina bifida, or cystic fibrosis, which are all better known than CMV.
CMV is highly infectious, and it’s passed on through bodily fluids like urine, mucus, saliva, and tears. Small children often catch and pass on CMV, so you should be particularly careful if you come into contact with them.
Currently, there’s no effective way to treat CMV in babies or in pregnant women, although giving babies antiviral medication shortly after birth can reduce the severity of their symptoms. To prevent catching it, you should
Wash your hands regularly with soap and hot water, especially after changing diapers or wiping a child’s nose
Avoid sharing food, plates, or silverware with young children while you’re pregnant
Avoid kissing a child on the face
Flu is no fun at any time of life, but it’s particularly serious during pregnancy. Pregnant women are at a higher risk of developing complications from the flu, and it could cause your baby to be born prematurely, with birth defects or low birth weight.
Flu can also cause stillbirth. The best protection is to get the flu vaccine. One study found that stillbirth rates fell by 51% among women who received the flu vaccine
Most women are vaccinated against rubella in childhood, in which case you’re immune for life. But if you haven’t been immunised and you didn’t catch it as a child, you should get vaccinated before trying to conceive. It’s not recommended to get vaccinated during pregnancy.
If you develop rubella during your first 4 months of pregnancy, you could experience a miscarriage or have a baby with serious birth defects like heart damage, brain damage, vision problems, or deafness.
Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by parasites that are found in cat faeces, so it can be present in cat litter, in the soil, and in children’s sandpits that cats might use as their toilet. It’s usually a mild disease, unless you’re pregnant. Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy can cause blindness, intellectual disabilities, and other birth defects in your unborn baby.
To avoid coming into contact with anything that could transmit toxoplasmosis, you should:
Get someone else to clean the litter tray if you have a cat
Wear gloves if you’re gardening or handling newly-dug vegetables, and/or wash your hands well afterwards
Make sure that all vegetables are washed thoroughly before you eat them.
Group B streptococcus, or group B strep, is a common and usually harmless bacteria that’s present in the bodies of around 30% of people. You wouldn’t know that you have group B strep unless you get tested.
Group B strep doesn’t harm you or your baby during pregnancy, but if you have group B strep, it can infect your baby during birth. This happens in approximately 1 out of every 1,750 pregnancies.
Babies infected with group B strep can develop meningitis, blood infections, and/or pneumonia, causing long-term disabilities in around 1 out of every 14 babies who are infected. Approximately 5% of babies with group B strep die from the disease. But most babies make a full recovery if they are treated early with antibiotics.
Group B strep is effectively treated with IV antibiotics during labor, so it’s recommended that every woman get tested for the bacteria between her 35th and 37th week of pregnancy. The bacteria grow fast, so testing earlier could mean that infections go unnoticed. If you have group B strep when you give birth, there’s a 1 in 400 chance that your baby will be infected, but if you get IV antibiotics, the risk drops to 1 in 4,000.
Listeriosis is a type of food poisoning caused by listeria. Listeria can be found in:
Soft cheese
Raw, unpasteurised milk and dairy products made from raw milk
Pate and deli meats and other chilled ready-to-eat foods
Chilled smoked seafood
so it’s best to avoid these foods. It can also live on the surface of fruits and vegetables, so wash all fruit and vegetables before eating them or handling them without gloves.
Although listeria is rare, even a mild case can cause serious damage to your baby, resulting in miscarriage, stillbirth, and severe illness in your newborn.
A number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can be harmful to your foetus or newborn baby. It’s best to always practice safe sex, including using a condom.
Chlamydia is particularly common, and you might not know that you have it. If you’re concerned that you might have been infected with chlamydia, ask for a test during pregnancy. It can cause premature birth, miscarriage, birth complications, and eye infections or pneumonia in a newborn baby. Chlamydia can be successfully treated with antibiotics before and during pregnancy to prevent you from passing it on to your baby.
Hepatitis B can be caught by contact with infected blood or sexual relations with someone who has the disease. If you have hepatitis B, you’re likely to pass it on to your baby. In that case, your baby will be given a vaccine at birth and at intervals during their first year, and it’s very effective at preventing them from developing long-term infection.
You might not know that hepatitis B is in your bloodstream, so it’s important to get tested for it during pregnancy. Women who are exposed to it during pregnancy can take antibodies that help reduce the risk of transmitting it to their baby. If you’re in a situation that increases your exposure to hepatitis B, you should get vaccinated before you try to start a family.
Hepatitis C is another blood-borne disease that’s transmitted through having sex, sharing needles, or getting a blood transfusion from someone who has the disease. The risk of passing it on to your baby is a lot lower than for hepatitis B, but if it happens there’s no effective cure.
Genital herpes are transmitted through having sex with someone who has genital herpes sores. If you catch genital herpes for the first time during your last 6 weeks of pregnancy, it could infect your baby with neonatal herpes. Neonatal herpes can be fatal if it goes untreated, but antiviral medication is very effective. The risk of transmitting it is a lot lower if you’ve had genital herpes before.
If you have genital herpes sores towards the end of your pregnancy, your doctor might recommend a caesarean section instead of vaginal delivery, to reduce the chances of infection.
The Zika virus is spread by infected mosquitoes, although you can also catch it through having sex with someone who’s infected. Zika disease is usually mild, but if you catch it while pregnant it can cause serious birth defects, like microcephaly, seizures, developmental disabilities, and blindness, as well as stillbirth.
ZIka outbreaks are common in some parts of South and Central America, parts of south and southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, and some Pacific Islands. They’ve also occurred occasionally in some parts of North America, but the risks of catching it there or in the UK or Europe are very low.
It’s best to avoid traveling to areas where Zika is widespread during pregnancy, and to use mosquito repellent and to cover up if you are in an area with an outbreak.
Fifth disease, also called slapped cheek disease, is caused by the type B19 human parvovirus. It’s common among young children and it rarely provokes any serious effects, but it can cause miscarriage if you catch it when you’re pregnant.
Many women are already immune, because they caught it in childhood. There’s no vaccine against Fifth disease, so avoid being around anyone who might have it. You can also reduce the risk of catching it by washing your hands thoroughly.
Although there are a lot of dangers around you when you’re pregnant, the right precautions can help you keep yourself and your baby healthy and safe. Whether you’re hoping to conceive naturally or planning to undergo IVF treatment, we hope your pregnancy and birth go smoothly and without anxieties or health scares.
Anyone who’s struggling to conceive knows that the entire experience can be extremely stressful. It’s not surprising that anyone finding it difficult to start a family feels a lack of control that fosters anxiety and potential depression.
One study found that women who are grappling with infertility show similar levels of depression to women who are fighting cancer. Another study found that women who were undergoing IVF treatments and had higher signs of stress (both self-reported and clinical) were less likely to get pregnant after their first IVF cycle.
It doesn’t help that some of the medications that are used to increase fertility, like clomiphene, leuprolide, and gonadotropins, have side effects that include increasing anxiety, depression, and irritability.
So it’s not surprising that stress and infertility go hand in hand. The big question is: does infertility cause stress, or does stress reduce fertility?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
The easiest way to measure stress is to ask the people involved to rate how stressed they feel (self-reported stress levels). The trouble is, this measure is not objective and could therefore be under- or over-reported.
It’s more scientific to measure levels of stress hormones. Stress triggers the release of two hormones:
The challenge here is that cortisol is released in pulses throughout the day, so levels can fluctuate significantly from hour to hour, making it tough to be sure of an individual’s long-term cortisol levels.
Alpha-amylase is more constant, but scientists still aren’t confident about its reliability in representing stress levels.
Most studies try to measure both self-reported stress levels, and at least one stress hormone level.
So far, studies haven’t been conclusive. 2010 saw the first study to find a link between stress levels and fertility outcomes. It tracked both cortisol and alpha-amylase levels and concluded that women with higher levels of alpha-amylase saw a 12% drop in their chances of becoming pregnant. However, this isn’t a statistically significant difference.
A later study in the US found that women with the highest levels of alpha-amylase took 29% longer to get pregnant than those with the lowest levels, but it didn’t take sufficient measurements to be confident of the results. Another one in China found that couples with higher levels of the enzyme had more difficulty conceiving than those with lower levels, but it didn’t rule out the impact of other factors on the delay in conception.
In case you might think that stress only affects women’s fertility, some studies have shown that stress could affect sperm production. The amount of sperm produced, their shape, and how fast they can swim all affect chances of conception. Unfortunately, however, the evidence isn’t clear cut for male fertility, either. A study from 2014 found that life stress affected the speed and shape of sperm, but not sperm concentration, while an earlier study found that men with 2 or more recent stressful life events showed lower sperm concentration and lower sperm motility (speed), but that sperm shape wasn’t affected.
An analysis of scientific studies from 1978-2014 discovered that couples undergoing fertility treatment who also received mindfulness training or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy were more than twice as likely to get pregnant than those receiving no such therapy. The study concluded that the more anxiety was reduced, the greater the improvement in pregnancy rates.
Although the jury is still out about whether stress really does affect fertility, it is thought that alpha-amylase and cortisol could interfere with the production of GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone), which is responsible for the release of sex hormones.
In this way, it could affect the menstrual cycle and ovulation in women, and the quality and count of sperm in men. Stress may also increase amounts of steroid hormones called glucocorticoids, which control the secretion of testosterone and thus affect sperm production.
Many doctors agree that stress on its own isn’t likely to affect fertility levels. What matters is the ways that you respond to feeling stressed.
For a lot of people, high stress levels lead them to:
all of which can lower your chances of getting pregnant.
If you’re trying to get pregnant, whether you’re hoping to conceive naturally or starting IVF, it seems safe to say that the less stressed you are, the better your chances of conception. It’s never easy to relax, but take the time to do activities that calm you down. We hope your path to parenthood will be smooth and stress-free.
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.
You’ve probably heard a lot about the risks of delaying starting a family until after you’ve become stable within your career, since trying for a baby later in life can potentially limit your chances of a successful pregnancy and birth. But you might not realize that the work you do or your workplace conditions themselves could also be affecting your chances of conceiving and giving birth to healthy children.
There are at least six ways that your work could affect your fertility:
It’s hard to say exactly how many chemicals women are exposed to daily, because they are all around us - in our makeup, our sanitary products, and in both our water and our food. One study found that every pregnant American woman is exposed to at least 43 different chemicals during her pregnancy.
But the workplace can be particularly hazardous. More than 1,000 common workplace chemicals have been shown to affect reproduction in animals, but millions more have never even been studied. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) registered over 21,000 substances since 2008, and that’s just for substance manufactured in amounts of more than 1 ton. It’s impossible to know which ones might affect fertility.
That said, there are some chemicals that scientists already know can make it hard to get pregnant, and it’s so easy to be exposed to them. Some of the main hazardous chemicals affecting fertility include:
As you can see, this includes a large number of workplaces and job types, including working in nail salons, factories, healthcare, farming, art, and garages.
These chemicals can disrupt the balance between your pituitary gland in your brain, (which controls your hormones) and your ovaries.
Estrogen and progesterone are the hormones that govern your menstrual cycle and prepare the uterus for a fertilized egg. If your pituitary gland doesn’t produce them at the right time and in the right amounts, it can alter your ovulation timing, damage egg production, and lower egg quality. It’s more likely that you’ll struggle to conceive with damaged eggs. Further, when egg quality is lower, the risk that it won’t divide correctly is higher, leading to a greater chance of chromosomal defects.
Chemotherapy drugs, X-rays, and fluoroscopy procedures all produce ionizing radiation, which we usually just call radiation. They affect the fertility of patients who have to undergo the treatments, but they can also affect medical staff who carry out the procedures or care for people after they receive treatment.
Direct radiation can damage the ovaries, and leaked radiation can harm the DNA in cells. Today’s workplace safety practices usually keep the amount of leaked radiation well below harmful levels, but it’s important to follow the rules and make sure your employers keep to them as well. Even a low dose of radiation can bring on early menopause.
Any profession that causes a lot of stress can impact your fertility.
We’re talking high-powered executive roles, jobs that include a lot of last-minute deadlines, and exposure to a toxic boss or stressful work environment.
That’s because stress produces a hormonal response (the “fight or flight” response) which affects the hormonal balance in the body, which can affect the production of reproductive hormones.
When you travel regularly or work night shifts, early morning, or late evening shifts, it can disturb your biological clock and cause jet lag. When your internal clock isn’t functioning properly, it can have an effect on hormone production, disrupting your menstrual cycle and ovulation window.
That includes:
Only around 24% of Europeans work a regular 8-hour day, five days a week, during daylight hours. 17% work shifts, and 14% work for 10 hours or more on a regular basis.
A large number of women work at jobs that involve too much bending at the waist or lifting, and it’s been found that these activities can affect your egg quality and egg production. The CDC defines “too much” bending and lifting as bending at the waist more than 20 times per day, or lifting heavy objects more than once every five minutes.
A study published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine found that women engaged in physically demanding jobs had a 9% lower reserve of eggs, and 14.5% fewer mature eggs, than those whose jobs don’t include heavy lifting.
Women working in restaurants or bars, as childcare providers, in factories and distribution warehouses, in retail environments, and in a number of other industries could all have to carry out “too much” physical activity, according to the study.
Workplace environments can also affect male fertility, so it’s something to think about if you’re struggling to conceive.
Heat is a significant risk factor for male infertility.
The ideal temperature for sperm production is a couple of degrees below body temperature, but many men work in hot environments that raise the temperature inside the testicles. When that happens, it changes the shape of the sperm, so they can’t swim well enough to reach the egg and fertilize it.
Heat can be an issue for:
Exposure to chemicals like pesticides, DDE, diesel fumes, lead, and paint thinners can impact:
Before you panic, consider that not every chemical is going to affect your reproductive health.
Issues that make a difference include:
Scientists still don’t know all the ways that your work could affect your fertility, so it’s important to do all you can to create a healthy workplace environment.
That includes:
Whatever path you take to building a family, we hope that your experience is as smooth 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.
