Many women don’t realize that their fertility begins to decline as early as their late 20s. Approximately 20 percent of women wait until age 35 to start trying to get pregnant, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). When trying to get pregnant, age matters.
“As women get older, the number of eggs decrease and the quality, meaning how good the egg is, decreases as well,” Dr. Lisa Becht of HRC Orange County recently said during a video segment on age and fertility. “After 35, we definitely know that the number of egg quality is going down. After 37, that goes down a little bit quicker, and then definitely after 40, the quality is really on the lower side.”
Fertility issues are often caused by egg quality and quantity decreases, but there is still hope for those wanting to have their own children. There are several fertility options that allow you to use your own eggs and there’s plenty of testing available to see what your condition is.
“In terms of treatments using your own eggs, we always want to do an evaluation first because women have different genetics and different ovarian reserves. After testing, we can discuss together what we think your chances would,” Dr. Becht explained about the egg testing process at her office.
“We don’t have any definitive age cut offs. But definitely with anyone over 42, it’s going to be much harder to get pregnant with your own eggs,” she added.
Any woman over the age of 45 is going to have a very low chance of using her own eggs to have a baby. But, with that being said, after testing, your physician will be able to give you a more personalized statistic, and ability for you to potentially use your own eggs.
In terms of being able to carry your pregnancy, we will do testing to evaluate the uterus and for various health conditions. The great news is that if you’re using a normal chromosome embryo, which is what you’re trying to seek by doing IVF, the chances of getting pregnant with that embryo really doesn’t change based on age.
The complications that could arise in pregnancy do increase, though. So in terms of somebody who’s younger versus older, pregnancy risks and complications like preeclampsia (which is a blood pressure issue), diabetes, preterm labor, and needing a C section, all increase with increasing age.
“If someone is over 45, you would absolutely want to do further testing and see a maternal fetal medicine doctor just to make sure that your body is able to handle the extra stress that comes from a pregnancy,” Dr. Becht added. She also mentioned that age 55 is typically the soft cut off age for carrying a pregnancy depending on one’s health.
In terms of men, we do know that age affects sperm as well. Men get a little bit more time than women, though.
“Over 40, we start seeing an impact on sperm. So for that testing is also important,” Dr. Becht explained.
“In terms of doing something like in vitro fertilization, we’re going to pick the best, fastest moving sperm. But in terms of getting normal embryos, that’s where we see that can go down as a man gets older. “
In all, Dr. Becht suggests testing to see how your age has affected your fertility. You can watch her entire video on age and fertility, below.
If you’re interested in a consultation with her in our Newport Beach, California office, please call 866-HRC-4IVF or schedule online.