Media outlets are once again frightening women into reproducing sooner rather than later. The headline “Women Lose 90% of Their Eggs by Age 30,” is being seen across the globe. It does sound a bit scary until you really do the math.
- At puberty girls are estimated to have approximately 300,000-400,000 eggs left.
- At 30 years old women have 10% of those eggs, which is 30,000 – 40,000 eggs
- From what I remember from biology 101, it only takes one healthy egg to make a baby.
Now those numbers don’t seem quite as scary as the media wants women to think.
Scientists have discovered the reason why women find it difficult to conceive later in life – they have used up about 90 per cent of their “ovarian reserve” by the age of 30.
While they may continue to produce eggs throughout their 30s and 40s, the reservoir of potential eggs from which they are taken has shrunk to almost nothing, it suggests. –UK Daily TelegraphBy the time a woman hits 30, nearly all of her ovarian eggs are gone for good, according a new study that says women who put off childbearing for too long could have difficulty ever conceiving. -ABC News
They use such anxiety filled language that isn’t painting a completely accurate picture of women’s fertility in their 30s and even 40s. These lines make it seem like the chances of a woman getting pregnant in her thirties is as likely as an immaculate conception.
Luckily, we do have alternative media that is try to shred a different light on this subject. Author Elizabeth Gregory wrote an excellent piece on Alternet pointing out left out science and asking valid questions that no one seems to be talking about in mainstream media.
“And sure, older women need to know that fertility declines with age. But what are the actual fertility rates of women in each age range? And why is it that increasing numbers of women choose to delay in the first place? What is lost when they don’t? Instead of facts and understanding of the causes and effects of delay, we get a lot of sentimentality aimed at getting you to start your family now.”
Science doesn’t occur in a vacuum, but in a complex society. Gregory has a lot of valid question that need to be part of the dialogue in fertility research and analysis. Why women delay childbirth is extremely important. Education, life experience, financial security and time to develop a general desire to be a mother are all good reasons to delay childbirth.
Women who don’t have children and don’t want children need to be recognized as well.
“And, hard though it may be to imagine in our baby-wild world, many women are happy without kids. They’d be even more likely to be happy if they weren’t being reminded all the time of how unhappy they should.”
This comes down to reproductive choice. Women are actually given a lot of choices between natural conception/birth, adoption, IVF and not having children. However, society seems to only value natural childbirth and the other options should only be executed as last resorts. This is exactly why a deeper discussion about these scientific findings is necessary for all women.
Considering that during ovulation only one egg is released having 30,000 eggs is overkill. If a woman ovulates from age 30 to age 65 she releases only releases 420 eggs.
I agree that the fear-mongering about “aging eggs” needs to stop, especially given the fact that the majority of the women I know dealing with infertility are in their 20s and have medical problems that create the infertility. However, the truth is that fertility declines with age-for both women AND men-and women (and men) do need to know this if they want biological children.
In addition, while IVF is a miracle procedure that has given many people the chance to have the children they so deeply desire, it is NOT equal to natural conception, since for many, many (most) people it is financially out of reach. I adore my child, conceived in an IVF procedure, and I would have paid many, many, many thousands of dollars more to have her, but I do wish I could conceive naturally and not be facing another $20k in debt to have a second baby.
One of my friends posted this blog on facebook, and I just had to go back to the original article because I don’t think this is scare-mongering. 1 – as a young mother I feel that the real social pressure for middle class women is to wait, not to have kids young. 2 – they are not lying – at least the Telegraph one is a balanced report of a scientific study. It really is harder for women to get pregnant after 30. And, for some women, fertility declines very rapidly after 35. Our bodies choose the best eggs to go for, and if you have fewer left, odds are the ones that are chosen wont be as good as they would have been if you had 90% more. Not scaremongering, but fact. Also, the article goes on to say that this research could help identify which women are most likely to face fertility problems – this could empower women to freeze eggs etc if they know they are likely to have trouble getting pregnant.
I think it’s also important to point out that by the time you are 40, if you have to go for IVF, there is only a 3% success rate.
This isn’t scare-mongering. It’s science. And I really think people should be aware of the facts, pretty or not.
Nice maths, but most women begin ovulating before age thirty. Ovulation is most likely to occur during puberty; and as every woman has an individual cycle, some will release more ovum than others and vice versa. 30,000 may still sound like ‘over-kill’, but I’m afraid we can’t choose how many ovum we are provided with!
Thank you for writing this article. My wife has friends with fertility problems an she fears (though we are pregnant now at age 39) that she will be unable to have more children in her “advanced age”. She showed me the article in Marie Claire today with these figures and I had to check the facts. Thanks for he information.
The information is alarming indeed, but facts are facts. Fertility docs and the mainstream media have no reason to push women to be younger mothers; in fact, Fertility docs only stand to gain from age-related fertility challenges. The missing piece of information is this: an egg must mature before it can successfully be fertilized and produce a baby. Only 450 eggs mature in a woman’s lifetime, on average. Rather than accuse researchers of crying wolf, why not be grateful for the information? This was the first study of its kind, no doubt brought about by the modern woman’s conundrum of postponing motherhood for education, career, and the right mate, but somehow also before she becomes infertile. Maybe medical research like this will produce medical innovations that will give our daughters more time and more options as to when to elect motherhood. Our reproductive options are now better than they’ve ever been, but the next frontier for women is extending fertility, and affordably so.