What age should you start to try for a family?

The age of first conception is increasing worldwide.  This is the average age women have their first child.  In the UK it is just over 30 and is increasing every year and will continue to increase as women delay having children so they can finish their education, pursue careers, travel, etc.  Unfortunately as women age our fertility declines, and after the age of 35, there starts to be a significant decline in fertility.   This is due to a decrease in the quality and quantity of eggs, which will continue to decline until we reach the menopause.  The graph shows our decline in fertility and the increase in spontaneous abortions.  The majority of the abortions are caused because of chromosome abnormalities in the eggs, which increase as we get older.

So the chance of getting pregnant decreases with age.  We are at our most fertile when we are teenagers, less fertile in our 20s, significantly less fertile after age 35 and it becomes very difficult to get pregnant in our 40s.  Past age 45 it is very rare to have a natural pregnancy.

This is a worry as women are delaying the age of first conception.

I am part of a group called the Fertility Health Task Force.  On 15th April 2016 we are holding the Fertility Health Summit: Choice not Chance to see if we can include fertility awareness in the UK sex education curriculum.  I was on Radio 4 earlier this week talking about our work.

In a recent paper titled Realising a desired family size: when should couples start? the authors used “an established computer simulation model of fertility, updated with recent IVF success rates, to simulate a cohort of 10 000 couples in order to assess the chances of realizing a one-, two- or three-child family, for different female ages at which the couple starts trying to conceive.”

Their results show “In order to have a chance of at least 90% to realize a one-child family, couples should start trying to conceive when the female partner is 35 years of age or younger, in case IVF is an acceptable option. For two children, the latest starting age is 31 years, and for three children 28 years.Without IVF, couples should start no later than age 32 years for a one-child family, at 27 years for a two child family, and at 23 years for three children. When couples accept 75% or lower chances of family completion, they can start 4– 11 years later. The results appeared to be robust for plausible changes in model assumptions.”

Some couples think IVF clinics can override age related infertility but they cannot.  Fertility decline is an issue as couples delay having children but evolution has not kept up with our changing life style.  I will discuss some options, such as social egg freezing, over the next few weeks.  Here is a Vlog of a debate I took part in last year.

Read More:

Global women connected fertility

Joyce Harper interviewed on Radio 4 talking about fertility awareness

Realising a desired family size; when should couples start?

Vlog on social egg freezing by Joyce Harper