Women’s widespread education and workforce participation — coupled with prevalent delays in marriage — has led to an overall societal shift toward later motherhood.
If this shift has shaped your personal family goals, you may be wondering just how much your age might affect your fertility and ability to get pregnant. Should you start trying to have kids in your early thirties, or can you safely wait until your late thirties or even early forties?
At New Beginnings OB/GYN in Shenandoah, Texas, our team offers a comprehensive range of family planning, preconception health, and fertility support services for women who are ready to conceive — or intend to try shortly.
Let’s take a closer look at how maternal age affects the fertility equation.
The annual fertility rate in the United States has been steadily declining every year for the past decade (since 2014). While a decline in teenage pregnancies partly drives this change, it’s also partly driven by the fact that many women are choosing to become mothers later in life.
But what qualifies as a “later” pregnancy and motherhood in the first place?
In the early 1990s, the median age at which women became mothers was 23 years old; by 2023, the average woman in the U.S. gave birth for the first time at about the age of 27.
These statistics, which cast later motherhood in cultural terms, don’t match up with the biological definition of later motherhood; however, a woman’s peak fertility years typically run from her late teens to her late twenties.
Biologically, later motherhood becomes a possibility by the age of 30 and truly begins by about the age of 35. From this age onward, the ability to conceive naturally declines quickly until, by the age of 45, female fertility has declined so much that natural conception is unlikely.
Women are born with a finite number of eggs, which decreases with age; at the same time, egg quality also declines with age — older eggs are more likely to have chromosomal abnormalities that can lead to miscarriage or congenital disabilities.
These two factors — egg quantity and egg quality — are the driving forces behind women’s age-related fertility decline. Here’s how this process divides female fertility into phases:
A woman’s fertility peaks in her twenties, when egg quantity and quality are at their best. During this decade of life, the average woman has a 25-30% chance of becoming pregnant every month she’s actively trying to conceive.
At the age of 30, the ability to conceive naturally begins to decline as egg quantity and quality start to decline. Even so, a woman in her early thirties still has about a one in four chance of getting pregnant in any single menstrual cycle.
The odds of natural conception decline significantly around the age of 35, alongside a now accelerating decline in egg stores and egg quality. Pregnancy becomes less likely — but still quite possible — during the usual window of fertility in any given menstrual cycle.
This age is both a risk factor for fertility problems and the starting point of a so-called geriatric pregnancy, or advanced maternal age, which falls into the high-risk category for prenatal care.
By the time she turns 40, a woman’s ever-dwindling number and quality of eggs put her chances of pregnancy at about one in 10 in any given menstrual cycle. Natural conception after the age of 45 is rare.
While it’s often said that female fertility “falls off a cliff” at the age of 35 — and that, in the past, it was rare for women to become mothers at or beyond this age — the reality of “later biological motherhood” today tells a different story.
You are more likely to have difficulty conceiving naturally from your mid-thirties on. Still, the decline in female fertility is less like a cliff and more like a downward-trending continuum.
The decline in egg number and egg quality follows this predictable trend, but its outcome varies from one woman to the next. Likewise, other individual health factors can affect your fertility at any age, such as:
Fortunately, just as it’s possible to address these issues — it’s possible for many older women to overcome age-related fertility decline with the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Are you looking for expert guidance on family planning, preconception health, or fertility? We’re here to help. Schedule a visit with Dr. Rania Ibrahim or Dr. Christina Parmar at New Beginnings OB/GYN in Shenandoah, Texas, today.