Myth Vs Truth: Age And Fertility

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Over time there has been varying school of thoughts, facts and myths about fertility for both men and women alike. The trick question here is if age directly affects fertility in men and women?

And as for men, age matters too.
Sorry to burst your bubble guys.

While fertility declines earlier in women, a man’s ability to father a child declines later. The quality of a man’s sperm drops as men get older, but it generally does not become a problem until he is in his 60s.

So till their 60s and 70s, men can father a child even though quality of sperm at that age is not as fantastic as when they were younger.

And just as women in their 40s, men in their 60s and 70s, who have a child have higher chances of having children with medical problems.

A woman’s best years of fertility is in her 20s. Fertility drops by age 30 and sharply declines by 35.

By age 40, there’s only 5% chance of being pregnant.

Now wether this justifies “rushing into marriage” is another discussion entirely, but fertility is age-dependent in women.

And contrary to popular assumed belief, many women are not fertile until menopause.

The average menopause age is around 51 years old but most women already actually become unable to have a successful pregnancy by the time they are somewhere in their mid 40s.
This is the fact.

And while media stories may suggest that IVF and artificial means of getting pregnant have huge success rates, the age of the woman affects the actual success in each particular case.

And this is purely because as a woman gets older, both the quality and quantity of eggs drop.

This is simple biology and the natural way the human female body works.

And this is why as doctors, we don’t worry about infertility in a married couple if the woman is less than 30, unless they have had unprotected regular sex for one whole year without pregnancy.

And naturally as men get older, especially above 70, the testicles get smaller, softer and as I earlier stated, the sperm quality also drops.

This is the simple medical perspective of the influence of Age on Fertility for both men and women.

I hope this was helpful to someone.

Kindly share your view on the subject matter of fertility and age.