Fertility issues can be hard to talk about — but you’re not alone. Many couples struggle to conceive. If you think that male infertility may be part of your problem, read more to learn what causes male infertility, and what you can do to treat it.
Age is one of the most important factors affecting fertility, and therefore pregnancy. A female has a finite number of eggs. Before birth she has 7 million, and at birth only 1 million remain. By the time she reaches the age of getting periods she has 500,000 remaining, and at age 38; 25,000. Ultimately, she will have none and go into menopause after age 51.
The ever-decreasing number of eggs remaining leads to 2 important reasons of decreasing fertility:
Half the chromosomes of the baby come from the egg and the other half from the sperm.Sperm chromosomes are constantly dividing because new sperm are generated all the time. In the eggs however the chromosomes start the division process before birth and complete it at time of ovulation, so the egg is sitting for the number of years that is the age of the female.
A 40 year old will have the eggs sitting for 40 years and at that time complete the chromosomal division. The result is errors in the division, that’s the reason incidence of downs syndrome increases with age. More importantly the body recognizes this error and prevents implantation from happening. And if it does the patient miscarries.
Once in a while the body makes an error and lets the pregnancy go further and an example is a down syndrome pregnancy, however the body is very efficient in not letting the pregnancy happen and for every abnormal baby born there are many pregnancies prevented. That is the reason that with egg donation, the age of the recipient does not affect the success rate as much because the age of the donor is the determining factor.
We also attempt to determine the health of the embryo through pre-implantation genetic testing. This serves a dual purpose; one is to identify the healthy embryos for implantation. The other is to guide in weather its useful to continue in attempts at utilize a patients eggs or to proceed to egg donation.
You Might Also Enjoy...
Fertility issues can be hard to talk about — but you’re not alone. Many couples struggle to conceive. If you think that male infertility may be part of your problem, read more to learn what causes male infertility, and what you can do to treat it.
Infertility takes an emotional toll on couples who may repeat or change treatments before getting pregnant. IUI, a type of artificial insemination, is one of the first options you may consider, but it’s not for everyone. Here’s when to consider IUI.
Are you feeling the emotional toil of considering or going through IVF? Stress management is one of the most important things you can learn while going through this fertility procedure.
When you are planning to have a baby, you want to give your future child the best chances of a healthy and happy life. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) screens for your baby’s gender and many gene disorders. Learn more about how this works.
Wish you could ignore your biological clock and put off having a baby until you’re ready? Thanks to advances in medical technology, you probably can. Age still plays a role, however, and the best time to freeze your eggs may be sooner than you think.
Through supervised hormonal therapy, ovulation induction stimulates the development and release of healthy eggs in women who, for various reasons, do not ovulate or experience irregular menstrual cycles.