Fertility in your 40s: Current treatments can greatly raise the odds of pregnancy

As you get older, your odds of conceiving through natural means substantially decrease. Women who are 40 have about a 5% to 8% chance of getting pregnant each month, and after age 43, this becomes less than 5%. By age 49, that number drops to less than 1%.

That may sound discouraging, but don’t give up! Getting pregnant isn’t impossible in your 40s. Some women do get pregnant on their own, while others might require help from a board certified reproductive endocrinologist, like our San Antonio fertility doctors.

Time is precious: seek help from a fertility doctor if you’re struggling with fertility in your 40s

When you’re trying to get pregnant in your 40s, time is a precious resource. Since fertility in your 40s declines rapidly with every passing year, fertility doctors recommend seeking help if you’re unable to get pregnant after six months. For those just starting on their own, after age 40, it’s usually a good idea to get basic fertility testing done even before trying to conceive, to make the most of your time.

TFC San Antonio offers many fertility treatments to help women in their 40s

Depending on the quality of your eggs, we might suggest treatments such as ovarian stimulation, intrauterine insemination (IUI), or in vitro fertilization (IVF). Your particular recommendation is based on your age, family-building goals, and chances of success, which will be reviewed during your first several visits.

Another game-changer in the fertility world for improving fertility in your 40s is the opportunity to do preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-A). In conjunction with Ovation® Fertility, embryos can be tested during an IVF cycle to see if they have the correct number of chromosomes prior to implantation.

While testing doesn’t change the embryo genetics, it can help prioritize which embryo to transfer and avoid transferring embryos that would automatically result in a miscarriage. Embryos with the correct number of chromosomes have the same chances of resulting in a pregnancy whether you are 20 or 40, so it can take the “age-related risks” off the table. Many women doing IVF in their 40s choose to do PGT to reduce the risks associated with advanced maternal age.

Living a healthy lifestyle and managing stress

Living a healthy lifestyle to boost fertility is a recurring theme in all age groups. In your 40s, you should still focus on maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise. You should also quit smoking cigarettes. We can’t change our age, but smoking is one of the most modifiable factors that can influence ovarian reserve (egg counts) and age at menopause. Women who smoke tend to enter menopause two to three years earlier than non-smoking women, and usually have poorer egg quality and numbers.

To optimize fertility in your 40s, you should limit alcohol and caffeine consumption, get plenty of sleep, and relieve stress with exercise or even meditation. Life can be stressful, especially when you have the added pressure of trying to conceive against the clock.

For those who need extra assistance, donor eggs can increase the chance of success

Most eggs that are released do not have the right balance of genetic material needed to make a pregnancy, and that’s true at every age. This means that humans, at best, only have about a 20% to 25% chance of conceiving when in your 20s.

While some women older than 40 may get pregnant using their own eggs, most eggs after age 40 do not have the right genetic material to make a successful and ongoing pregnancy. This is why pregnancy rates decrease, and miscarriage rates increase, in your late 30s and early 40s.

Patients with severely diminished ovarian reserve, advanced ovarian aging, or failed fertility treatment cycles may be offered IVF using donor eggs. Donor eggs are obtained from women in their 20s or early 30s, which means the eggs are more likely to make a successful pregnancy. Since age does not appear to negatively affect the uterus, women in their 40s can have success rates comparable to what they were in their 20s, when they are using donor eggs.

Becoming a mother can be one of life’s greatest joys, and everyone at TFC will enlist the power of advanced reproductive medicine and compassionate care to help you achieve your goal. Contact our San Antonio fertility center to optimize or restore fertility in your 40s.