What is the effect of age on fertility?

Fertility declines with advancing female age. The prevalence of infertility reaches 25% in women in their late thirties and there is a rapid decline of fertility after the age of forty. There is also evidence of declining fertility with age in the male partner.

There is evidence that complications in pregnancy and childbirth increase with advancing maternal age.

The following graph from Australia shows evidence that women are delayingchildbearing:

The following graph shows the chance of conceiving according to female age in a donor insemination program

Note that this graph doesnot specify the number of treatment cycles; the average number of treatment cycles was 6, and the range was 1 to 41

Hum Reprod. 2001 Nov;16(11):2298-304.

Results of 6139 artificial insemination cycles with donor spermatozoa.
Botchan A ,Hauser R, Gamzu R, Yogev L, Paz G, Yavetz H.

Related Medical Abstracts - Click on the paper title:-

The association of age and semen quality in healthy men (2003)

The effects of female age on fecundity and pregnancy outcome (2001)

Effects of male age on semen quality and fertility: A review of the literature (2001)

Human fertility does not decline: Evidence from Sweden. (1999)

Age-related decline in fertility: A link to degenerative oocytes? (1997)

The impact of the woman's age on the success of standard and donor in vitro fertilization. (1997)

Female age is an important parameter to predict treatment outcome in intracytoplasmic sperm injection. (1996)

The age-related decline in female fecundity: a Quantitative controlled study of implanting capacity and survival of individual embryos after in vitro fertilization (1996)

Effect of age on sperm fertility potential: Oocyte donation as a model (1996)Delaying childbearing: Effect of age on fecundity and outcome of pregnancy (1991)

Please click on the required question.

1 What is infertility?

2 How prevalent are infertility problems?

3 What are the main causes of infertility?

4 What are the objectives of our infertility investigations?

5 Have there been any noticeable changes in fertility requirements in recent years?

6  What is the effect of our age on fertility?

7 I smoke cigarettes. Can this have an effect on my fertility?

8 Does my weight influence fertility?

8A Obesity! How can I lose weight?

9 I have fibroids. Could these reduce my fertility?

10 I have been told that my womb has an abnormal shape and that was the way that I was born. Could this reduce my fertility?

11 I have endometriosis. Could this reduce my fertility?

12 I have been told that I have cervicitis or a cervical ectopy (erosion). Could this impair my fertility?

13 My doctor tells me that my womb is retroverted (tilts backwards). Could this reduce my fertility?

14 I have had an ectopic pregnancy. Does this affect my future fertility?

15  We are worried that we may have a fertility problem. What should we do?

16 How will our doctor be able to identify the cause of our infertility?

17 How can we tell if I am releasing my eggs (ovulating)?

18 Investigations have shown that I have a problem releasing my eggs (anovulation). What could be the cause of this?

19 How important are my Fallopian tubes in fertility?

20 How can we tell if my Fallopian tubes are functioning?

21a What are the causes of male factor infertility?

21 How can we assess male fertility?

22  What is the purpose of a post-coital test (PCT)?

23 We have had our infertility investigations and our problem remains unexplained. How can this be?

24 What are our chances of achieving a pregnancy?

25 Where can I obtain more information?

26 Could we have some recommended infertility support groups?

Thank you for choosing to visit us.

This is the personal website of David A Viniker MD FRCOG, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London.

I do hope that you find the answers to your questions in the patient information and medical advice provided. If you still have unanswered questions, please consider entering them into one of our forums and I will try to assist you.