Posted on 04/30/2002 3:40:50 AM PDT by billorites
London — Human fertility starts to decline earlier than previously believed, new research suggests, providing the most precise insight yet into when biological clocks start ticking loudly — at age 27 for women and 35 for men.
Until now, it was thought that women's fertility starts to drop significantly in the early 30s, with a big plunge after 35. But the new study indicates that, on average, female fertility begins its meaningful slide at age 27.
And while the decline in human fertility tied to aging had traditionally been attributed to the female factor, the study, published Tuesday in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that men's fertility starts dwindling after 35.
Nevertheless, experts said the findings should not raise undue concern. The results mean it may take a month or two longer to conceive than it does for younger people, they said. The ages at which declines were seen are only averages and there is a wide range in fertility at any specific age.
"Certainly very young women in their early 20s are more fertile than women in their late 20s and early 30s. But I suspect that the fertility of those women who are around 30 is high enough that it doesn't give them a real cause for concern or worry up to the age of 35," said Dr. Chris Ford, a researcher at the University of Bristol in England who studies fertility and age, but was not involved with the study.
"Although we noted a decline in female fertility in the late 20s, what we found was a decrease in the probability of becoming pregnant per menstrual cycle, not in the probability of eventually achieving a pregnancy," said one researcher, David Dunson, a biostatistician at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The study also found that men's fertility dropped after 35. Previous research had hinted that male fertility starts to decline in the 40s or 50s.
The study found that while a 35-year-old woman with a partner the same age had a 29 per cent chance of getting pregnant in one month, her chances dropped to 18 per cent if her partner was 40.
No decline in male fertility was seen before age 35, and the man's age only seemed to matter when the woman passed 35, the study found.
At the age of 40, men were 40 per cent less likely to get their partners pregnant in a month than they were at the age of 35, Mr. Dunson said.
Darn ... what's that ringing sound in my ears?
Sadly, 26 is no longer "pathetic" in some areas of our country where real estate prices and rents are largely unaffordable to those starting out. (If that's her situation however, she had better be saving and planning towards her future, otherwise that would be pathetic.)
The damage done by public schooling is lifelong and enormously destructive to society. I sometimes ponder whether the parents should build a guillotine. There are not a few administrators, professors of teachers' colleges, judges, union bosses, and psychiatrists who deserve the treatment.
To His Not-So-Coy MistressTime's Wingèd Chariot (poets say)
Warns us to love while yet we may;
Must I not hurry all the more
Who find it parked outside my door?
For those who sipped Love in their prime
Must gulp it down at Closing Time.-- Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, after Marvell.
Don't blame the biological clock for this one. Today's men are thrashed by their 40s or 50s-- all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.
Survival of the fittest in action: Those dames who fell for women's lib will have had fewer offspring.
Darwin in action.
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