What are my chances of getting pregnant after the age of 30?
Human fertility depends to a great extent on the age of the woman. And we can talk about statistics but of course on an individual level it really depends on when that particular woman is programmed to go through menopause. Some women go through menopause at the age of 50, most of them do, but some can go through menopause at age 45, or 40, or perhaps even 35. Those who go through menopause earlier than the age of 35 are said to have premature ovarian failure, and the incidence of that is about 1%. So women who are in that category of course have limited possibility of getting pregnant even if they are at an age as young as 30. However for most women, fertility does not begin to decline until 30 or perhaps even 35. If you look at population studies fertility seems to decline at 30, and fertility treatment cycles typically not until the age of 35, which means we can probably make up the difference between 30 and 35 with the use of medication. After that however fertility lowers dramatically so that after the age of 45 it's very uncommon to get pregnant with a woman's own eggs. Of course I know there are women out there who do get pregnant on their own but I want to remind you that we do not know what the denominator is in terms of the proportion of women trying to get pregnant at that age. It's very uncommon for a woman to get pregnant with her own eggs after the age of 45 as a result of fertility treatment.
