Do either of these sound familiar? “I’m going to focus on my career for now and I’ll figure out kids later in my thirties.”
Today, many young professionals choose to focus on their careers in their twenties and early thirties. They believe it’s important to establish themselves at work and become financially stable before thinking about having children.
This allows them to concentrate on their jobs and personal goals first, but they also need to plan carefully for the future.
Or “I’m in no rush to have kids. I have plenty of time.”
Many young adults today feel they don’t need to hurry to have kids. They want to use their twenties and early thirties to explore, learn, and grow in their careers.
With new medical advances and better understanding of fertility, they feel more comfortable waiting until they’re ready. However, it’s still important to know how waiting can affect having children later on.
Men and women are choosing to have children at older ages these days.
Women might hear about celebrities getting pregnant after 50 or know a boss who had her first child in her early forties. But there is often an unseen side to this story, which may involve years of struggle and expensive fertility treatments like IVF.
Men learn that they will continue producing sperm into old age and believe that age-related infertility is not a concern for them.
However, sperm quality can deteriorate, making conception more difficult and increasing the risks of diseases in their future children.
Age and Female Fertility
A woman’s fertility is linked to the set number of eggs her body will produce in her life. Fertility changes as women age, with significant impacts starting in the mid to late thirties when the body produces less estrogen and progesterone.
During menopause (typically around age 51), women’s ovaries stop producing eggs, making natural pregnancy impossible. Reproductive ability often ends 5 to 10 years before menopause.
Women learn about their reproductive timeline at a young age, which prompts them to think more practically about their future family than men do.
Life plans like finding a partner, advancing a career, and having children are considered with this biological clock in mind.
This can be complicated when a male partner doesn’t understand this timeline. However, men should also consider their biological clock.
Female Fertility Facts
=> A woman is most fertile in her late teens to late 20s.
=> In her 30s, a woman’s fertility starts to decline, with a sharp decrease by the late 30s.
=> Having multiples (twins, triplets, etc.) happens more frequently in older women.
=> The risk for children with a genetic condition, such as Down syndrome, goes up significantly in a woman’s 40s compared to her 20s and 30s.
=> As a woman ages, her risk of miscarriage increases as well.
AGE AND MALE FERTILITY
Male Fertility Facts
=> Peak male fertility is around 25-29 years old.
=> Sperm quality begins to decline at 30.
=> Around 36-37, damage to sperm DNA begins to increase, and the risk for genetic disease increases slightly.
=> At 45, men begin to experience a significant decrease in semen volume.
=> Older men can also take longer to conceive a child.
=> As men age, testosterone production begins to decline, impacting sexual function and sperm quality.
The impact of age on male fertility hasn’t received as much attention as its impact on female fertility, because it is less obvious. However, it is still significant.
Age can greatly affect sperm quality. Testosterone production declines, impacting sexual function and sperm quality.
Sperm motility, or movement, is reduced, making it more difficult for sperm to reach a woman’s egg. There is also an increase in abnormal sperm morphology, or shape, which can affect the sperm’s ability to fertilize an egg.
Older dads also face an increased risk of having children with genetic diseases. For example, a 50-year-old man has double the risk of having a child with Down syndrome compared to a 25-year-old. While the risk is still low, the increase is significant.