Female age is important when considering probability for getting pregnant. Increased infertility rates with aging are well documented and apparent in our society. The real issue is egg quantity and quality -which translates into embryo quality after fertilization. As women wait longer to have children, more couples have fertility problems due to declining egg quality and other issues that are more common in older women.
Many couples end up needing advanced treatments such as IVF, in vitro fertilization to overcome this age related decline. Women’s liberation brings many advantages to women. However, as women delay childbearing, society has not educated us about this fertility decline. The age of the male partner does not appear to matter much when it comes to fertility. Reasons for this include:
All of a woman’s eggs are present at birth. They cannot divide or be “resupplied”, whereas sperm are produced constantly after puberty in men.
Eggs age over time, while new sperm are constantly coming off the production line.
Sperm from older men can have a reduced fertilizing potential compared to younger men. However, this tends to be “all or none”. If the sperm can fertilize eggs – we usually don’t see poor embryo quality due to reduced sperm quality.
Sometimes older men have less interest in frequent intercourse, which can be a factor.
In the developed world, deferment of marriage and postponement of child-bearing in marriage are resulting in unprecedented numbers of couples who desire pregnancy relatively late in life. These factors combine with a decline in fertility and an increase in pregnancy wastage with advancing age to present new challenges for the clinician treating infertility.