When does fertility start to decrease?

When does fertility start to decrease?

When a woman gets to be about 30 but if you look around you wikll see more and more couples are waiting until they are in their 30s for a child. The treatments are becoming much better and cheaper to use.It's after 35 that it starts to decrease. Check out this website: http://www.fertility.com/international/index.jspMore women today find they want to put off pregnancy until their careers are well established, or until they've gotten more life experience. However, research shows that pregnancies in women over the age of 35 suffer from more problems than those in younger women. How great are the risks compared with the benefits, and what do you really need to be concerned about?
How Old is Too Old to Have a Baby?
According to the Mayo Clinic, a woman's fertility peaks between the ages of 20 and 24. However, fertility rates remain relatively constant through the early 30s, after which they begin to decline:

At age 30 to 35, fertility is 15 to 20 percent below maximum. From age 35 to 39, the decrease is 25 to 50 percent. From 40 to 45, the decrease is 50 to 95 percent.

Technically, any woman who has not gone through menopause, and who does not have other reproductive problems, can become pregnant. Successful pregnancies have been reported in women as old as 59.

Pregnancy Risks After 35
The risk of miscarriage increases after age 35; by the early 40s, more than 50 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Many of these occur at an early stage and may not even be detected, or may be mistaken for a late period. The majority of these miscarriages are due to the chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus.

Other age-related factors affecting fertility include less frequent and/or irregular ovulation, and endometriosis, in which tissue that attaches to the ovaries or fallopian tubes interferes with conception.

When they do get pregnant, women older than 35 may have a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and placenta previa. There is also a potentially higher risk of having a baby with low birth weight, and of chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome.

Aiming for a Positive Pregnancy
Although older women may find it somewhat harder to achieve pregnancy, the overall outcomes are excellent. In fact, birth rates for mothers in their 30s and 40s have increased dramatically over the past 25 years. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the birth rate for women age 35 to 39 nearly doubled between 1978 and 1998. Between 1981 and 1997, the birth rate for women in their 40s increased 92 percent.

If you're over 35 and thinking of getting pregnant, a few simple tips will help minimize the risks:

Start taking prenatal vitamins
See your doctor for prepregnancy checkups
Eat well
Exercise regularly
Cut out nicotine, alcohol, and drugs

Finally, if you don't succeed in getting pregnant within six months, see a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility specialist) to discuss next steps.

Sources: The Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy and Baby's First Year (Morrow, 1994); March of Dimes: 888-MODIMES, www.modimes.org, www.nacersano.org

The information on this Web site is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your pediatrician or family doctor. Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have regarding your or your child's condition.

Content courtesy of American Baby.What is the difference between an ob/gyn and a fertility clinic?

It's about specialization. OB\GYNs specialize in the health of the female reproductive system (i.e. preventing problems that harm YOU). Fertility clinics specialize in the ability of the system to house and provide for a baby.Well a fertility clinic helps you get pregnant and stuff while an obgyn does pap smears, and prescribes birth control and treats pregnant women.OB/GYN specializes in gynecology, and obstetrics which is generally pregnancy and birth, a reproductive endocrinologist (an RE) is someone that specializes in what could be wrong that would make a woman or man infertile. The ob/gyn is the next step in finding out what is going on, as your primary doctor is not specialized, from there your OB/GYN will help you to figure out if you are ovulating or not, or if you have a varying degree of a cycle. From there, you could end up going to a fertility clinic for further testing.I think your doctor made the right call sending you to the ob/gyn so you can be sure if you are ovulating or not. If you want to have a baby you would go to a fertility clinic after you know more about why you and your partner are not getting pregnant.
Natural Fertilizer is Not Crap

Article by Natural Fertilizer Guy

When thinking about the term Natural Fertilizer, a rotting pile of horse manure might come to mind. Some will think of a bin full of compost and worms. Others will gleefully remember the first time they learned what the word guano meant. Believe it or not, natural fertilizer can be made from natural materials other than crap. Sure, horse manure, turkey manure, bird droppings and worm casings are great natural fertilizers. If you do not have a horse farm nearby, or a pickup truck with which to haul, or you live in a climate where running a small worm farm would require a return to old-fashioned agriculture by keeping your worms cozy in your garage all winter, there are alternatives that do not involve conventional, synthetic fertilizer.

Free Natural Fertilizer

Most fertilizers are a combination of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The NPK numbers on the fertilizer bags you buy at the store give the ratio of these ingredients to each other. Depending upon your lawn or plant types, some ratios work better than others. A free way to add nitrogen to your lawn and garden is to keep your grass clippings. You can use a mulching mower and leave the clippings right on the lawn, or you can use a bag to collect the clippings and spread them in your garden. As soil organisms break down the grass clippings, nutrients will return to the soil, and the soil structure will improve.

Seaweed Fertilizer

Seaweed is a plentiful resource, and a source of many nutrients. Asian cultures have used seaweed as a staple of human diets for centuries. Seaweed is just as beneficial for plants. Plants need micronutrients, which are trace elements that occur in soil in much lower quantities than Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Most soil tests do not test for micronutrients and it can be difficult to restore balance of nutrient availability if it becomes unbalanced. Using a natural source of micronutrients like seaweed is a good way to ensure micronutrient availability in the soil.

You can apply seaweed directly to the soil, as a mulch, if you are lucky to live where there is ample seaweed for harvesting. Before applying, it is a good idea to hose it down to remove excess salt. Seaweed breaks down quickly, but its slimy consistency contains components that help improve the structure of crumbly, sandy or coarse soil. The other, easier way to use the powerful effects of seaweed (especially if you live in a land-locked state) is to purchase a concentrated nutrient solution made with seaweed. These solutions can be diluted with water and applied like conventional liquid fertilizers, but they are safer for people and plants.

Plants Need Hormones, Too

Another type of concentrated, liquid, natural fertilizer is a fertilizer solution made from plant hormones. In people, hormones regulate body functions. Plant hormones function in much the same way. There are hormones that promote fruit growth, hormones that promote vegetative growth, hormones that regulate reproduction, photosynthesis and every other plant function. Plant hormones can be synthetically produced and used to produce artificial results in plants. (One example includes flats of petunias for sale at your local big-box store that are about one inch tall but full of blooms. Some plants never grow out of those treatments.) When mixed appropriately and applied correctly, plant hormone natural fertilizer solutions are quite safe and effective.

Natural, Safe Fertilizers-More than Crap

Commercial growers have been slow to embrace natural fertilizers as a business-friendly way to produce cash crops. Those growers have a lot on the line, and many have referred to natural fertilizers as snake oil! With public demand growing for safer, more environmentally friendly agricultural products, large scale farmers will start to jump on the bandwagon. Additionally, modern large-scale farming methods deplete soil and ruin structure, where using natural fertilizers does not. Eventually it will make more sense to commercially produce plant products with more natural, sustainable products.

There is nothing, however, stopping you, the home gardener, from trying these natural fertilizers today. They will produce higher yields in the short term, and maintain soil structure and fertility in the long run. They are a win-win option for you and for your plants.

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