At which age should women have children?

At which age should women have children?

When is the best time to get pregnant?

How strong is the connection between fertility and age in women?

How to conceive a baby once you start hearing your biological clock ticking its last years?

For those who think that waiting until after 35 to get pregnant is a good idea, please consider that, in terms of our biological clocks, it is actually our mid-20s when women are most fertile.

That is a perfect age for having children (or at least the first child). The mid-20s time window is best suited for both mother and infant and that is a reality that won’t be changed any time soon.

The good news is that, due to increased life expectancy, there is still more than enough time left for a woman to later pursue her career, partnerships, or whatever else she may wish for. Therefore, for anyone who is serious about becoming a mother, the use of this time window should not be missed.

Doing everything else first and intentionally delaying pregnancy until after 35 is simply a risky idea. To this, I would like to also add (knowing how little support most social settings provide and how difficult raising a baby may become): should getting a first child at this age be an entirely impossible task, there exists one viable alternative that every young woman should consider (I wrote a separate article about that:  Is Freezing eggs the best backup plan available?)

Good books on fertility and getting pregnant: 

References:

Axmon A, Rylander L, Albin M, Hagmar L. Factors affecting time to pregnancy. Hum Reprod. 2006 May;21(5):1279-84.

Bentzen JG, Forman JL, Larsen EC, Pinborg A, Johannsen TH, Schmidt L, Friis-Hansen L, Nyboe Andersen A. Maternal menopause as a predictor of anti-Mullerian hormone level and antral follicle count in daughters during reproductive age. Hum Reprod. 2013 Jan;28(1):247-55.

Hewlett BS, Hewlett BL (2010). Sex and searching for children among Aka foragers and Ngandu farmers of Central Africa. African Study Monographs, 31(3): 107-125.

Shostak, Marjorie (1981). Nisa, the life and words of a !Kung woman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Talukdar N, Bentov Y, Chang PT, Esfandiari N, Nazemian Z, Casper RF. Effect of long-term combined oral contraceptive pill use on endometrial thickness. Obstet Gynecol. 2012 Aug;120(2 Pt 1):348-54.

Wallace WHB, Kelsey TW (2010). Human Ovarian Reserve from Conception to the Menopause. PLoS ONE 5(1):e8772.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008.