Is TTC much harder in late 30s than in mid 30s?

[Anonymous]

OP, I wonder if you could convince your OB to test your day 3 FSH. While that test is not 100% (it only detects one type of problem) it's relatively cheap and if the results show that you might have problems, you'll know that waiting would be very risky if you want to conceive on your own (or with IVF). However, a "good" FSH doesn't mean that you're 100% safe in waiting a couple years. Just something to consider...

[Anonymous]

I waited due to career issues for both my husband and I. Got pregnant right away at 38, but had a miscarriage at 10 weeks due to chromosonal abnormalities. Got pregnant again 2 years later with my 4th round of IUI, and again, this time at 12 weeks, another miscarriage due to chromosonal abnormalities. Now time is really starting to run out. You just don't know if a) you can get pregnant, and b) if that pregnancy will be successful. Most women experience a miscarriage (whether they know it or not). If I had to do it all over again, I would have started a year earlier to allow time for all of the bumps in the road. Now I'm stuck at almost 41, trying again, with both the biological and adoption clock ticking and a lot of money lost. If you think you won't be ready, once you get pregnant you will know that nothing else is as important. And as someone else said, a big career move can wait, but this can't.

[Anonymous]

For me, there was a significant difference.
Age 34 - success after 3 months of trying (but miscarried).
Age 35 - success after 4 months of trying (health baby).
Age 40 - success after 9 months of trying (but miscarried).
Age 41 - success after 1 year of trying (healthy baby).

[Anonymous]

I started TTC at 38, using fertility clinics and donor sperm. I was shocked at the data when I looked at it then, about the decline in fertility between 35 and 40. In my head, 40 was the magic year and I'd started early enough.

Ended up needing a uterine surgical procedure (fibroids), it took a year to from first visit to released to the OB (only 3 IUI cycles, but surgery was timeconsuming). For next pregnancy at 42, also took a year, this was all IUI cycles, and my RE was talking donor egg, highly unlikely, blah blah.

Although getting an FSH measurement now would tell you something (that your fertility had already fallen off a cliff), a good measurement now doesn't tell you if/when it will go up, and that you can get pregnant.

Honestly, you need to try and put yourself in a position where it is 3 years later, your career is on track and you can't easily have a biological child. What is your regret?

I would recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility, track your cycles and get a sense of where you are now. One of the perimenapousal signs that I had was a slightly shorter cycle than in my early 30s.

[Anonymous]

there may seem to be a bias on this forum but there is no doubt that fertility declines rapidly after 35.

This is true. Yes, you are here on a board where lots of us are having TTC troubles, but there's no disputing that fertility drops around age 35 and more recent research shows that you "fall off the fertility cliff" at age 37.

Since there is no way to know how it will be for any one individual, the best you can do is factor the odds into your decision. When people say "I got pregnant on the first try at 41," well, that's wonderful, but you have to realize they are in a statistically very small minority.

[Anonymous]

At age 29, I went to an RE for testing, and came back with borderline high FSH. I was still able to conceive, and the doctor told me I could probably have more children (trying for #2 now), but that I needed to do it sooner rather than later.

My point is - you just never know. I never would have thought at age 29 that I would need to start seriously thinking about my fertility, and getting a move on things. Maybe you should go to an RE to get some general testing. Although it won't guarantee your fertility, it will give you an indication if something is wrong right now, and whether you should start now. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

there may seem to be a bias on this forum but there is no doubt that fertility declines rapidly after 35.

This is true. Yes, you are here on a board where lots of us are having TTC troubles, but there's no disputing that fertility drops around age 35 and more recent research shows that you "fall off the fertility cliff" at age 37.

Since there is no way to know how it will be for any one individual, the best you can do is factor the odds into your decision. When people say "I got pregnant on the first try at 41," well, that's wonderful, but you have to realize they are in a statistically very small minority.

What data are you basing these statements on? Anecdotes? OP, here is a link to an interesting article, "Cumulative delivery rates in different age agroups after artificial insemination with donor sperm." After 12 cycles, 76% of women aged 35-37 delivered a baby compared to 66% women ages 38-39 and 52% for women ages 40-45.
I personally agree with many of the PPs who suggest you try now despite career issues to increase the likelihood of success. But I think the doomsayers need to be balanced by real data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

there may seem to be a bias on this forum but there is no doubt that fertility declines rapidly after 35.

This is true. Yes, you are here on a board where lots of us are having TTC troubles, but there's no disputing that fertility drops around age 35 and more recent research shows that you "fall off the fertility cliff" at age 37.

Since there is no way to know how it will be for any one individual, the best you can do is factor the odds into your decision. When people say "I got pregnant on the first try at 41," well, that's wonderful, but you have to realize they are in a statistically very small minority.

What data are you basing these statements on? Anecdotes? OP, here is a link to an interesting article, "Cumulative delivery rates in different age agroups after artificial insemination with donor sperm." After 12 cycles, 76% of women aged 35-37 delivered a baby compared to 66% women ages 38-39 and 52% for women ages 40-45.
I personally agree with many of the PPs who suggest you try now despite career issues to increase the likelihood of success. But I think the doomsayers need to be balanced by real data.

Can you provide the link? Very curious as to home large their statistical sampling was. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

What data are you basing these statements on? Anecdotes? OP, here is a link to an interesting article, "Cumulative delivery rates in different age agroups after artificial insemination with donor sperm." After 12 cycles, 76% of women aged 35-37 delivered a baby compared to 66% women ages 38-39 and 52% for women ages 40-45.

If you think the statement that fertility declines rapidly with age once you reach your mid to late 30's is "based on anecdotes," you must have your head in the sand. Just google "fertility and age" or "fertility after age 37."

While you didn't provide a link to an article, your quoted stats seem to be for women undergoing IUI with donor sperm for a year. Probably not the situation the OP is hoping to wind up in. I'm doing medicated IUI right now and I can assure you I would much rather prefer to be able to get pregnant the old-fashioned way.

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that 52% of women in the 40-45 age range will conceive within a year with IUI. I thought IUI had much lower success rates than that - I know the "per cycle" success rate is quite low, and I thought most REs only did a certain number of stimulated IUI cycles before moving on, so it seem unusual even to have a large sample of women doing 12 IUI cycles. I know SG only recommends 3-6 stimulated IUI's before moving to IVF because after that many attempts, there's very little chance that a subsequent attempt will succeed. Maybe your stats are accurate, but I would be genuinely interested in reading the article or study if you have a link, especially since I'm on my 2nd IUI now and was planning to try only one more if this one fails.

[Anonymous]

Here's the link to the article. http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dep085
Most of the patients in the study were lesbian couples who CHOSE donor insemination.

And to the poster who said, "google 37 and fertility," I say, be careful what you read on the internet. You can find a lot of dire statements on the internet that are not at all based on scientific evidence.

[Anonymous]

"Here's the link to the article. http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dep085
Most of the patients in the study were lesbian couples who CHOSE donor insemination.

And to the poster who said, "google 37 and fertility," I say, be careful what you read on the internet. You can find a lot of dire statements on the internet that are not at all based on scientific evidence. "

You must be high. There is not one fertility clinic in the world that has anything near a 52% success rate for women in their 40s, not even close. The best clinic in the country for women is their 40s has a take home baby rate in the 20% range. Please don't mislead the OP with your ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Here's the link to the article. http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dep085
Most of the patients in the study were lesbian couples who CHOSE donor insemination.

And to the poster who said, "google 37 and fertility," I say, be careful what you read on the internet. You can find a lot of dire statements on the internet that are not at all based on scientific evidence. "

You must be high. There is not one fertility clinic in the world that has anything near a 52% success rate for women in their 40s, not even close. The best clinic in the country for women is their 40s has a take home baby rate in the 20% range. Please don't mislead the OP with your ignorance.

First of all, read the study before you make such accusations. If you had, you would see that these patients were not being treated at an infertility clinic. We are talking about all comers in the 30's and 40's. Obviously, patients in that age range at an INFERTILITY clinic are not going to have these success rates. But the point of this post was to provide evidence to the OP whose fertility status is unknown that age >X (37, 40, whatever) = infertility. You need to look at the population at large of mid-late 30's -- not just mid-late 30's at an infertility clinic (major selection bias).

[Anonymous]

I also suggest not waiting. I started TTC at age 34. DH and I were surprised to have trouble. We were tested by an RE, and everything came back normal (including FSH and AFC). Still, no pregnancy. Succeeded after two IVFs. While I didn't think that 34 was particularly young, I also didn't think that I would have too much trouble. Since another poster mentioned health and genetics, I thought that I would add that both DH and I were healthy (worked out regularly, ate healthy foods, good BMIs). Genetics doesn't really provide a good answer as to why we had issues either. My mother and grandmother both became pregnant very easily, including at older ages.

You could get tested by an RE now to figure out your stats, but as I said, my results were all normal and indicated that I was fertile, but I still couldn't get pregnant.

FWIW, I'm now 39, and my stats have definitely fallen off of a cliff from where I was 4 years ago. We thought that we might try for a second child, but things don't look promising.

[Anonymous]

As PP noted, getting pregnant is only half the battle. I have been pregnant three times - twice when I was 37 and once at 42 (the m/c is just ending now). I have one child because my first and third pregnancies ended in miscarriage. I turned 43 last week. I got pregnant this time on our second month of me grabbing DH by the shoulders and saying "look, the OPK is positive today". I got pregnant fairly easily. The problem is that egg quality is bad at my age. I had the RE run tests last fall after we had been trying for a few months, but I never went back to get the numbers. If you are ovulating, then you have eggs. The key is sperm meeting egg and the chromosomes in both being good. But who can tell that? I wish we hadn't waited this long, but since I got pregnant in the first and second months of trying the first two times, DH thought we had all the time in the world. He was wrong.

[Anonymous]

I agree you should look at stats, but also truly consider your life circumstances. If you're not ready for a baby right now, then you're not ready and I would think long and hard before rushing into it due to fertility fears.

If it helps to hear a personal anecdote, I got pregnant with my first at 39 (married late) after a few months of trying. I know that I was lucky, but I'm certainly not the only one out there.