Shelf Life of Women?
 

I guess this question would be directed at AKA_monet and others with medical training, but at what age does reproductive ability for women begin to decline?

At what age are women at their reproductive peaks?

I seem to recall from bio that reproductively speaking most women peak in their mid 20s. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but we're born with a set amount of eggs (which always seemed wierd to me). After 30 they start to go stale, so to speak.

oh james,
you aren't worried about that already, are you?

xoxo

Peak in 20s, downhill from 40s on. You can get pregnant until menopause but 40 seems to be one of the bigger drop off points as far as fertility and fetus health.
The set number of eggs is kind of accepted, although I've seen research that suggests that mice at least create eggs later in life.

Isn't james the guy that lost his junk? Where is it?


Drolefille....do your project!

I just had to say LOL at the title of this thread!

I did a double-take when I first saw it... :)

Shhhhhhhhhh.

Like Drolefille said, generally women's fecundity is roughly peaking in the early 20's. It really starts to decline at sometime in mid-30's. It is unknown why.

Women in the 40's have an all out loss of ovulation, anovulation, roughly in their late 30's and ends in mid-40's.

However, depending on the woman, biological aging, and a variety of factors, etc. women could have children long after menopause. We are talking Biblically speaking. It doesn't mean it is impossible, but highly unlikely.

I don't think it is the depletion of eggs. Humans females have some 1 million eggs prior to birth. It is thought that ovums are produced that way for evolutionary protection with least energy usage--i.e. food consumption, etc. Most women secrete 1 ovum per month roughly starting at 9-14 years old. If said female starts her menstruation at 10 and continues until 40, it would never account to loss of all 1 million eggs. (I'll let the stats folks calculate).

The decline may have to do with unsupported endometrium if there is no problem with ovulation. It may also have loss of hormones that also decline as humans age.

If a woman ~40 year old want her own genetic children, she needs to consider vitamin and female organ supplements, and good health prior to pregnancy pursuits. Some women are lucky and do not need all of the boosting. Most are not.

I hope that answers your questions. How come you are asking?

Peak is early 20s. The decline begins at age 27. There was some article in Time Magazine about it a few years ago. I should know...my mother sent the article to me in the mail with a little post-it on it that read, "Just so you know, I want grandkids. Love, mom."

Seems we newbies missed the ribald days of GC!! :) I just read all 12 pages (yes, I'm avoiding being productive). I really enjoyed the song and the post where a raise was requested and then denied by "management."

p.s. classic Earp post on p.6, not sure I get the "grape juice" part, tho'...

That's subtle...

I still miss one of the members in that thread. :(

No pressure or anything. lol

It is generally accepted that once a woman hits 30, she needs to seriously consider either having children immediately or [in today's world] freezing her eggs as the ability of the body to spontaneously abort eggs with 'problems' is much less accurate.

What?!?! This is "generally accepted" by whom????

Stop scaring the young women on this board. Most of the women I know had children well into their 30s, don't go rushing to get a bun in the oven because the timer clicks to the big 3-0 if it's not where you are in your life at the moment...

I've definitely seen 40 more often as the "make a baby now or never" age. Even if fertility starts to decline before that the more genetic issues seem to jump around 40 (for guys AND girls btw. Old sperm is as bad as old eggs when it comes to things like Downs Syndrome.)

Human eggs are hard to freeze... Sorry for the pun, but human eggs do not freeze like other mammals. Human sperm and embryos freeze "okay", but after 20-30 years, the functionality can be questionable. But human eggs, well they charge $20K+ to freeze them...

Why James, do you want kids from your 75 year old wife? lol (kidding):p

I've been reading a lot about reproductive technology, and this seems to be the basic jist:

18-25: the "peak" of fertility
25-29: a small decline in fertility, but the odds are still greatly in your favor to conceive naturally within a year
29-35: fertility stays stable
35-40: steep decline in fertility
40-up: small chance of conceiving your first child naturally at this age

It seems to be that if you start having kids earlier rather than later, you can continue to have children much later. The women in my family have had kids up into their 40s, but they started around 25-26. The ones who start trying at 35 or older seem to have the most problems.

I won't lie, this is all kind of scary to me. I'd like to start a family sooner rather than later for a few reasons (health, energy, and I'd actually like my kids to have grandparents who can hang out with them), but there might be a lot of hysteria on both sides.

Does she know my mom? Are they hanging out getting coffee together comparing notes and ideas? Everytime I talk to my mom I swear she asks me if I'm seeing anyone. Have I met a nice guy yet? Geesh leave it alone...

Hmm...my mom didn't do this and it seem to work out okay back in the 70s. This is also why I find the above comments she (my mom) makes so annoying. She didn't meet my dad til she was 30, married at 31. Had my sister at 33 and had me at 38. I've yet to hit any of those ages yet.

Well, let's see...how many credits of biology have I taken? About 15? Okay then. Sounds good.

Isn't that like, a semester's worth of classes? Using your "logic," I should be completely fluent in Italian and an expert on Modern Architecture.

Sit down and shut up, 'cause you don't know what you're talking about.

Great, then, pull out your reference books and cite your source of the "generally accepted" statement you made.

ETA: And in particular, the research that results in the dictate that women need to have children "immediately" once they turn 30...

Yeah, I don't think it's so much women who have already had children who have problems, it's the women who start trying after 35 that potentially run into problems with their fertility. Both of my grandmothers had children into their 40s--but they had several children in their 20s and 30s.

I am a theologian and a mathematician and a physicist. Awesome. I'm so over law school.

Score, I'm a theologian too! I also speak fluent French, am a philosopher, and am a biologist/chemist, even though I changed my major halfway through school!

FantASTic... I have more than 15 credits in biology, I have at least as many in chemistry. Interestingly enough, biology doesn't deal with things like women's fertility, anatomy does. So your credits (and mine) mean jack squat.

"Shelf life" indeed. I am a woman, not a carton of milk.

I think everyones already responded much clearly then I ever could, but I just wanted to say your title made me laugh out loud. I pictured a person sitting on a shelf in Kroger with an expiration sticker across their forehead.