When it comes to issues of fertility, it is the age of the egg, not the age of the woman that matters most.
At birth, all females have about 1 million eggs. By puberty, a woman’s egg reserve has declined by 50% and each month thereafter, she will lose an additional 750 eggs. Beginning in a woman’s 20’s, the eggs not only begin to diminish in quantity, but also in quality. Significant deterioration occurs after the age of 35. The end result is that as a woman ages, it becomes increasingly difficult, and eventually impossible for her to conceive a healthy baby naturally due to the age of her eggs.
According to the
American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), a woman over the age of 40 has only a 5 percent chance or less of becoming pregnant naturally in any one month. Furthermore, the risk of chromosomal abnormalities in newborns increases with the age of the woman's egg, growing to 1 in 66 at age 40 versus 1 in 385 at age 30. The risk of Down Syndrome in particular increases from 1 in 1,000 at age 20, to 1 in 100 at age 40 according to the CDC.
There is good news. Research has found that when women use eggs donated to them by younger women, they can achieve the same pregnancy success rates as women in their 20's. Extend Fertility’s egg freezing service provides a way for women to be their own donors. We retrieve eggs at a younger age and preserve them using cryopreservation technology. When a woman is ready to get pregnant, she has her younger eggs available to increase her chances of success.
Read what doctors have to say on the subject of age and fertility.
