From age 15 to age 45, there are approximately 200,000 eggs left in reserve. Within that timeframe of 30 years and given normal monthly menstruation, you have an estimated 550 available eggs per month in which only one best egg will be released.
“An egg needs a threshold of about 40,000 mitochondrial DNA copies to make an embryo,” says Jurisicova. For Wells, the evidence is clear. “The rate of decline accelerates around the age of 35 and the vast majority of women are essentially infertile by the time they reach 45,” says Wells.
By the time a woman reaches 40, she'll be down to about 18,000 (3% of her pre-birth egg supply).
At the age of 37, the average woman has around 25,000 eggs left, and by the time she reaches 51, this will have fallen to 1,000. “Just before menopause, your egg supply reaches below 1,000, and ovulations space out before they stop altogether, eventually,” says Dr. Sekhon.
Egg quality is largely determined by the ovarian environment that the eggs spend their final 90 days of development in; women in their 40s generally have a poor ovarian environment for producing high-quality eggs.
Your age affects the health of your eggs. Women reach the peak of their fertility at around age 24. After this age, egg quality slowly deteriorates until around age 37, and then deteriorates more rapidly until about age 42. After roughly age 42, fertility for most women basically falls off a cliff.
Women lose 90 per cent of the eggs in their ovaries before the age of 30, new research has shown. The mathematical model shows that the average woman has only 12 per cent of her eggs left by the age of 30 and only three per cent by the age of 40.
Women have “perfect” eggs below the age 30, but then egg quality starts to decline, which explains declining fertility. Over the age of 45, almost all the eggs which fertilise will create chromosomally abnormal embryos and therefore the chance of healthy, ongoing pregnancy is close to zero.
“It's exceptionally rare for patients to get pregnant naturally at 50 or over 45. They make history,” said Dr. David Keefe, an obstetrician-gynecologist and fertility researcher at New York University. In part that's because around age 50, many women are entering menopause, after which egg harvesting isn't possible.
Can you have a normal, healthy pregnancy at 45? Yes. Assuming you have top-notch prenatal care during your pregnancy, you eat well and have a healthy lifestyle, you take care of yourself during your nine months, and you come into your pregnancy as healthy as can be, your pregnancy can be problem-free.
The pregnancy rate with IVF using your own eggs is practically zero. We have had several patients at InVia insist on trying IVF with their own eggs. We have not had a single live-birth in women above age 45 years. An exception is a report of a 50 years old woman in India who recently had a live birth with IVF!
Doctors have tests to measure egg count.
There are two good ways to measure egg count: an antral follicle count and an AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone) test. During an antral follicle count, a doctor uses ultrasound to count the visible follicles.
Women are born with all the oocytes they're ever going to have. Every passing year they lose eggs until they “run out”. When all of their eggs are gone they've reached menopause. During their reproductive years their eggs grow in little “bubbles” on the surface of the ovary called follicles.
A woman is born with all her eggs. Once she starts her periods, 1 egg develops and is released during each menstrual cycle.
“Freezing eggs after the age of 40 is not typically recommended but may be considered on a case-by-case basis,” says Cross.
So on average, when we look at large groups of women, of women who want to conceive at age 40, about half will get pregnant naturally. But that decreases quickly to perhaps 20% to 25% by age 42 to 43. And by age 45, it's quite rare to become pregnant naturally. Dr.
Egg freezing typically works best for women in their 20s to 30s, and is not generally recommended for women older than 38 years. The biological clock cannot be reversed by oocyte cryopreservation in women older than 40.
Is natural conception possible? Yes, she could conceive naturally. The chances, however, are low. There is a 33 - 50% chance of miscarriage and an increase in the incidence of chromosomal problems with the baby, such as Down syndrome.
It's highly unusual for a woman to get pregnant on her own after age 45. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008 there were 0.7 births per 1,000 women ages 45 to 49, compared with 9.9 births per 1,000 women ages 44 to 40.
Your chance of miscarriage is increased, along with an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and having a child that is preterm. You are also at risk for conceiving a child who has a chromosomal abnormality, such as Down's syndrome.