Trying to Conceive (cont.)
Infertility
It is not uncommon to have trouble becoming pregnant or to
experience infertility. Infertility is defined as not being able to become
pregnant, despite trying for one year, in women under age 35, or after six
months in women 35 and over. Pregnancy is the result of a chain of events. As
described in the Fertility Awareness section above, a
woman must release an egg from one of her ovaries (ovulation). The egg must
travel through a fallopian tube toward her uterus. A man's sperm must join with
(fertilize) the egg along the way. The fertilized egg must then become attached
to the inside of the uterus. While this may seem simple, in fact many things can
happen to prevent pregnancy.
Reasons for Infertility
Age
There are many different
reasons why a couple might have infertility. One is age-related. Women today are
often delaying having children until later in life, when they are in their 30s
and 40s. A couple of things add to this trend. Birth control is easy to obtain and use,
more women are in the work force, women are marrying at an older age, the
divorce rate remains high, and married couples are delaying pregnancy until they
are more financially secure. But the older you are, the harder it is to become
pregnant. Women generally have some decrease in fertility starting in their
early 30s. And while many women in their 30s and 40s have no problems getting
pregnant, fertility especially declines after age 35.
As a woman ages, there are normal changes that occur in her ovaries and eggs.
All women are born with over a million eggs in their ovaries (all the eggs that
they will ever have), but only have about 300,000 left by puberty. Then of
these, only about 300 eggs will be ovulated during the reproductive years. Even
though menstrual cycles continue to be regular in a woman's 30s and 40s, the
eggs that ovulate each month are of poorer quality than those from her 20s. It
is harder to get pregnant when the eggs are poorer in quality.
Ovarian reserve is the number and quality of eggs in
your ovaries and how well the ovarian follicles respond to hormones in your
body. As you approach menopause, your ovaries don't respond as well to your hormones, and in time they
may not release an egg each month. A reduced ovarian reserve is natural as a
woman ages, but young women might have reduced ovarian reserves due to smoking,
a prior surgery on their ovaries, or a family history of early menopause. Also,
as a woman and her eggs age, if she becomes pregnant, there is a greater chance
of having genetic problems, such
as having a baby with Down Syndrome. Embryos formed from eggs in older women
also are less likely to fully develop, a main reason for miscarriage (early pregnancy loss).
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