Declining Fertility

The decision of a lifetime for many people is if and when to have a baby. The national trend though seems to be to put off that decision, and that's something doctors want to change.

LISA FLORES ALWAYS WANTED KIDS....

Flores

"Ever since I was little I've always wanted kids."

BUT AT 27, OTHER LIFE GOALS ARE COMPETING WITH ANY MOMMY-TO-BE NOTIONS.

Lisa Flores

"Well I'm currently attending Sac State, right now getting my masters in school counseling. That's a definite goal of mine. My first goal right now is to finish school, I should be done May 2003."

HERE'S WHAT'S SURPRISING...LISA, WHO IS HEALTHY AND ACTIVE, IS ONLY A FEW YEARS AWAY FROM ENTERING A SENSITIVE FERTILITY ZONE.

Dr. Stephen Boyers/Reproductive Endocrinologist

"When you start talking about aging and fertility you're talking about women who are over age 30. They are young, healthy women."

THIRTY...IN TODAY'S TERMS SEEMS SO YOUNG. WOMEN MUST THINK SO, TOO. THEY'RE DELAYING CHILDBEARING LIKE NEVER BEFORE. WITH COLLEGE AND CAREER GOALS BECOMING MORE AND MORE IMPORTANT, THE CONCEPT OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK SEEMS ALMOST ARCHAIC...

Monica Simmons

"I thought it was a joke. I'm a massage therapist. I have my career. I'm established. My husband's my best friend. I thought, 'oh we don't need kids.'"

IF MATERNAL INSTINCTS DO KICK IN, BE IT WHEN A WOMAN IS 40, SHE HAS QUITE A SET OF ROLE MODELS TO LOOK TO...CELEBRITIES LIKE JANE SEYMOUR, MADONNA AND CHERYL TEIGGS PROVE THAT YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL, AND BABIES IN YOUR FORTIES AND EVEN FIFTIES! THROW IN ADVANCES IN FERTILITY TREATMENT AND WOMEN ARE BANKING

ON THE FALSE HOPE THAT THEY HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THEIR REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM.

Dr. Boyers

"I have patients all the time when I start to talk about the fact that at 35, 39 and 40 it's a bit tougher to become pregnant...look at me almost incredulously because no one's ever said that before, and they have a next door neighbors, who are 40 and just brought the new baby home."

DR. STEPHEN BOYERS, A REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGIST WITH UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER, IS IN FAVOR OF A NEW CAMPAIGN

RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT THE AFFECT OF AGE ON FERTILITY.

IT'S A CRUSADE THAT'S LANDED ON THE COVER OF MAGAZINES AND THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR: WHILE TIMES AND TRENDS HAVE CHANGED, OUR BIOLOGY HASN'T.

Dr. Boyers

"Women, on the other hand, are born with every egg they are ever going to have. In fact, they had most of their eggs when they were still a fetus in utero...some 6 or 7 million."

AS A FEMALE AGES, EGGS EITHER GET OVULATED OR DIE. BY PUBERTY A WOMAN HAS ABOUT 400,000 EGGS LEFT, AND WHILE SHE ONLY NEEDS 400 TO OVULATE DURING HER REPRODUCTIVE LIFE SPAN, WAITING SEVERELY DECREASES THE CHANCE OF GETTING PREGNANT.

Dr. Boyers

"In your twenties and early thirties the chance of becoming pregnant from just one ovulation is something like 20 to 30 percent. The same healthy couple...now the woman's age is 40, 5 percent chance."

OLDER LESS ENERGETIC EGGS ALSO HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME IN THE OVULATION PROCESS. SO AS A WOMAN AGES, HALF THE BATTLE IS GETTING PREGNANT, THE OTHER HALF STAYING PREGNANT.

Dr. Boyers

"We can show from studies that women in their early thirties already have a lower chance to become pregnant than women in their mid twenties...by 35 that's a very obvious decline in fertility...by 40 it's a significant drop off."

Simmons

"I woke up at three in the morning bawling...just couldn't control it...thought something was wrong with me. My husband woke up. He said, 'What's wrong with you?' I said nothing...I think my biological clock fell off the shelf and hit me on the head."

AS FOR MONICA SIMMONS...

Simmons

"People keep asking us if we want a boy or a girl, and Michael's response is either one can ride a dirt bike."

HER MATERNAL URGES...TO HER SURPRISE...SUDDENLY KICKED IN, AND SHE'S EXPECTING HER FIRST CHILD AROUND HER TWENTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY. LISA, ARMED WITH THE LATEST FERTILITY NEWS, IS NOT TOO CONCERNED ABOUT HER FERTILITY CONSIDERING HER CIRCUMSTANCES.

Flores

"As for me, you know I get a little nervous about being older and having children, but I think being healthy and as active as I am, I'm not too worried."

WHILE AT 30 FERTILITY STARTS TO GO DOWN, MANY WOMEN DO GET PREGNANT, SO THE ULTIMATE QUESTION SEEMS TO BE THIS: IS THERE A MAGIC AGE WHERE FERTILITY ISSUES NEED TO BE ADDRESSED?

Dr. Boyers

"If you're 35 and you've not had a child and you want to have a child at the time, you should be worried."

THE POINT IS NOT TO ENCOURAGE PREMATURE PREGNANCIES IN WOMEN WHO AREN'T READY TO HAVE A LITTLE ONE BUT TO EDUCATE AND INFORM WOMEN THAT THINKING ABOUT BRINGING A BABY INTO THE WORLD MAY NEED TO START SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.

A survey of thousands of women found that women have an excellent understanding of birth control, but that they overestimate the age in which fertility declines...thinking pregnancy is possible a lot later than it truly is.

From The

UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH ARCHIVES