While more women continue to
have children in their 30s and 40s, it
becomes more diffi cult to become
pregnant with age. Baby girls are
born with one million to two million
eggs in their ovaries, and that supply
of eggs declines through adulthood.
By menopause, women have only a
few hundred eggs left. Eggs become
less responsive to follicle-stimulating
hormone as time passes, making
them less likely to develop into
embryos after fertilization.
As a result, it becomes more
challenging to become pregnant
as women enter their 30s. Yet hitting
the big 3-0 does not mean that
bearing a child is out of the question.
Studies show fertility changes
gradually for women during their 20s
and 30s. Approximately 98 percent
of women ages 19 to 26 trying to
get pregnant do so within two years.
Women between ages 35 and 39
are successful within two years
90 percent of the time.
CONSIDERATIONS
The rise in births during the 30s
and beyond is due, at least in part,
to improved fertility treatment
options. Doctors offer a variety
of medications, procedures and
assisted-reproductive technology
techniques to help improve a
woman's chances of becoming
pregnant.
While waiting to have children
may be the right choice for some
families, becoming pregnant later in
life does carry a higher risk of certain
complications. Health concerns
related to high blood pressure are
more common in women over
age 40, and the likelihood of
conceiving a child with Down
syndrome increases as women age.
On the other hand, giving birth
later in life is also linked to living
longer. A 2014 Boston University
School of Medicine study found that
women who have children after age
33 are twice as likely to live to age
95 as women who have their last
child by age 29.
Fertility Curve Fertility Curve
Put parenthood within your reach at the Center for Human Reproduction in
Manhasset, Flushing and Rego Park (516-562-BABY), Mineola (516-470-BABY)
and Suffolk (631-650-BABY); Lenox Hill Human Reproduction in Manhattan
(212-324-BABY); or Island Reproductive Services on Staten Island
(718-948-6100).
FOR HER
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14
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More women are
waiting until later
in life to have
children. What
does this mean
for their odds of
conceiving?
The number of women who
become fi rst-time mothers
later in life rose signifi cantly
between 2000 and 2012 —
increasing by 25 percent for
those ages 35 to 39, and by 35
percent among those 40 to 44,
according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
THE