Age Related Fertility Problems
Age and Fertility
Many people put off trying to start a family for a variety of reasons; not met the right partner yet, focusing on the career, saving for a deposit on a house, or just because they feel too young to start their own family. Then when they do try to start a family with their partner, nothing happens. It is a commonly-held fallacy that if you have intercourse at the right time in the month you will achieve a pregnancy. In actual fact, most couples have to try to several months. Generally, and assuming you are young enough, your chances of conceiving increase the longer you try.
Statistically, a young fertile couple has only about a 1 in 10 chance of achieving a pregnancy each month but trying at the right time each month for a year will result in a pregnancy for about 3 in 4 couples. As you get older it gets more difficult to conceive. By the time a woman is 38 years old, the numbers above will have nearly halved. There will be about a 1 in 20 chance of conceiving each month and less than 1 couple in 2 will have achieved pregnancy after a year. Thereafter, it gets progressively harder to achieve a pregnancy as time goes by. Although probabilities vary for different women, there is still about a 1 in 100 chance of achieving pregnancy naturally each month when a woman is aged 46, as long as she tries at the right time of the month. Fertility for men also declines with age but it is a much slower process and men can father a child well into their later years.
Fertility treatments improve your chances. You should not try these too early if you are young and do not have any reason to believe you have fertility issues. You can always have your ovarian reserve checked to get an idea of the time-frame. But if time is marching on and you keep trying unsuccessfully, do not leave it too late to seek professional fertility advice. We can improve your chances of success each month but we have to start with your underlining fertility which is indicated by the ages & probabilities above.
