Fertility over 40

Fertility over 40 is a common challenge, with couples delaying starting a family for social reasons or perhaps starting a second family.

There is plenty of evidence that both male and female fertility declines with age and 35 years being a milestone. This doesn’t have to be a limiting factor, however your nutrition and lifestyle habits from your teens all the way up to your mid thirty’s may influence your ability to conceive. The sooner you start engaging in a fertile friendly lifestyle the slower the fertility aging process.

When considering yours and your partner’s fertility, we are not just concerned with reproductive health. Chronological age is just the years on the calendar. Your lifestyle during those years will have influenced your fertility too. It is possible to slow or even reverse the metabolic aging process and even have a metabolic age that is younger than your calendar age. Studies of the Bluezones have seen a 14 year increase of female life expectancy. Stress, eating habits, exercise and body fat all have a role to play in the creation of your future babies.

We can’t change the past, but we can improve your future, even if you are only starting your fertility journey now.

Even if you are not planning a baby immediately there is much you can do to maintain or improve your current fertility status. Smoking habits, alcohol consumption, exercise routine, body weight and diet are all relevant. The oldest woman in my clinic who conceived naturally was 45 years and the oldest IVF patient was 49, so don’t let a number stop you when you are willing to makes changes to grow your family.

‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now’ – Chinese Proverb.