Life Begins at 40 ?

Most women around the age of 30, whom I have seen do show apprehension regarding that particular age as if one fine day at age 30 they would suddenly find themselves less fertile.

I think the problem needs to be better understood. Unlike men who produce sperms throughout their whole life, women are born with a definite number of eggs. It is from this pool that they select 15 or 20 of them every month to grow of which again only one grows to maturity under unstimulated conditions. As she keeps using her reserves, one day the pool of eggs finish and this coincides with Menopause. However much before this event actually happens, the fertilizing ability of the eggs starts to diminsh even though the woman might still have normal regular periods. Contrary to popular belief, while this usually happens around age 40 and above, it can even happen below the age of 35, a term called Premature Ovarian Failure.

There are many problems related to the age of the woman as far as fertility is concerned. If at age 25 the chances of being Infertile is around 6%, then the chances around the age of 40 is about 40%. there are several factors which are associated:
Poor Response to Ovarian Stimulation:Drug doses required to produce eggs are usually very high and may yet be incapable of stimulate the growth of good eggs.
Poor Egg Quality: The fertilizing ability of the eggs is poor and this can be only established if Assisted Reproduction is being done when we get the chance to see the eggs under the microscope.
Lower Implatation rates: Women above 40 do not have lesser chances of embryos attaching to their wombs, not because the defect lies in the wombs but because their own embryos may be incapable of doing so.
Genetic Abnormalities: The eggs recovered from elderly women may have higher percentage of genetic abnormalities which make them either incapable of fertilizing or lower chances of implanting or once implanted the chances of having a miscarriage are higher.

Having said this I would like to reiterate that it is not my objective to strike the fear of god in every woman over the age of 30. It only means that when you are approaching 30 or have crossed so, you must be aware of the problems asociated, take a deeper interest in your treatment and ensure that it is aggressive.

To save myself from the wrath of feminists, I must add that although men dont have the kind of problems with fertility (with age) that women have, it has been found that there is a decline in semen volume, sperm motility and structure of the sperms although their counts remain normal.

My next post will deal with testing for the effects of age on female fertility and few pointers about treatment.