Fertility at 40 – is it game over?
by Natasha Christou Digital Marketing ConsultantIt’s a widely held belief that women – because
of a ticking body clock - should be conceiving before the age of 40. But, although fertility does decline with
age, it isn’t a case of ‘game over’ when the big 4-0 hits! In actual fact, research has shown that women
over the age of 40 were more fertile than women under 20.
Of course, there’s no getting away from
nature and that as we grow older, our chances of conceiving decrease. However,
the age that affects us individually is dependent on other factors including
health. Here, we will look at why we’re waiting until we’re older to have
children.
Changing times and attitudes
As time progresses, so do our attitudes. More
and more couples are deciding to have children later in life. In 2017, the average
age of first-time mothers and fathers was 29 years old and 33 years old,
respectively. In 1970, this was 21 years old for women.
In a competitive jobs market, many women
are breaking traditional family roles and are deciding to progress in education
or establish a successful career before choosing to start a family. In many
countries, balancing a career and having children is difficult, with expensive
childcare systems and less than generous maternity and paternity leave. When
choosing between the two, the more likely option is to get a leg up in their
career and make money first.
The impact of conception innovations
Adam Balen, chair of the British Fertility
Society, said: “Although fertility rates for women aged 40 and above have been
generally rising fast, this is contributed to by fertility treatments, and
natural fertility among women in their 40s is still considerably lower than for
women in their 30s."
Medical innovations in healthcare and
assisted conception are becoming widely used with good success rates, over
eight million babies are born due to IVF since the first. It’s become common
practice for many to freeze their eggs to combat fertility ruining their
chances of falling pregnant — the younger egg has more of a chance of
conceiving.
Technology advancements have created new
methods to rejuvenate a mature woman’s eggs without damaging DNA. The
controversial Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) has been used successfully
in countries like Ukraine and Mexico, which removes the nucleus from an egg and
replaces it with a donor’s DNA. This therapy is banned in the States due to
concerns that introducing a third “parent” will lead to genetic defects in
generations to come.
Health supplements are available to improve
fertility (e.g. Coenzyme
Q10 Fertility). Whilst, vitamin D3 is crucial for general good health and
has been found to improve sperm quality and reproductive health. Not only
reproductively, but is essential in enhancing our immune systems, reducing
chances of complications or miscarriages.
Contraception
In the 1970s, the age of first-time mothers
was considerably lower than it is now, due to low usage of contraception. Women
were falling pregnant from having sex at an earlier age rather than being able to
control what happened with their bodies. Contraception was rarely used
before the 1990s, mainly because of
societal expectations. Increased availability and acceptance of contraception has
liberated couples by allowing them to choose when to have children. Perhaps
this is a reason why statistics are suggesting that women are more fertile at
an older age, when in fact it’s less women choosing to have children at a
younger age.
Becoming healthier
Research has found that middle-aged Britons
are becoming healthier than they were as a consequence of healthier diets and
regular exercise. Research by Harvard in 2018 found that eating healthily and
cutting out processed foods assist chances of conception without assisted
conception — inclusion of folic acid, vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids increase
chances. Women who ate more amounts of fast food and small amounts of fruit and
veg took longer to conceive. As we get healthier, do we maintain fertility?
Although fertility isn’t the same for everyone,
there are steps you can take to improve your chances of conceiving. Improving
your health and researching medical options are helping women start a family at
an older age.
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Created on Jan 16th 2020 07:28. Viewed 287 times.