The connection between female age and infertility
Age matters to fertility. Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. As such, advanced maternal age is one of the most common causes of infertility. The fertility specialists at our San Antonio egg freezing center understand the link between female age and infertility, and they offer a variety of treatment options to help women become mothers, including fertility preservation.
A predictable pattern for female age and infertility
The link between female age and infertility is clear. The quantity and the quality of eggs decrease with age. This reduces the chance of pregnancy, whether a woman is trying to conceive on her own or with fertility treatments. Through experience, our San Antonio egg freezing specialists see a significant decline in female fertility much earlier than menopause, usually around age 51 to 52, due to a reduction in egg quality and quantity.
Statistically, pregnancy after age 42 is relatively rare. As a result, our team offers a variety of treatments to help women in this age range become mothers. The first step includes a blood test and a vaginal ultrasound to determine a woman’s ovarian reserve, or how many eggs she has left. These results assist fertility specialists in designing individualized treatment plans for women seeking to become pregnant.
Egg freezing to protect fertility
One approach to safeguarding fertility is egg freezing. This treatment helps stop the biological clock and increases a woman’s chance of pregnancy, despite the link between female age and infertility. Egg freezing allows a woman to use her eggs at a time that’s right for her.
During the egg freezing process, oocytes—cells that develop into an egg or ovum—are removed from the body and frozen. This procedure preserves the quality of the cells over time. When a woman is ready to start a family, we can thaw and fertilize her eggs. We can then transfer one embryo to her uterus. We can freeze the remaining embryos for use at a later time. A woman’s physician will carefully monitor her for pregnancy.
The age of the egg when it is finally used is the same as when it was retrieved. As a result, deciding to freeze eggs now can not only reduce a woman’s stress levels associated with aging and the ability to have a baby, but it can also diminish the increased risk of chromosomally abnormal pregnancies related to advanced maternal age.
To find out more about female age and infertility from our San Antonio egg freezing specialists, including egg freezing and other treatments, please contact us to schedule a consultation.