May 16
| Natural menopause occurs around the mean age of 50 however, within the past few years, timelines associated with family planning have changed dramatically. Modern societies have demanded for more options to extend the female reproductive lifespan improving the odds of conceiving at a later age, but is this right and/or ethical? What does the future hold? | |
| It is well established that female reproductive performance dramatically drops around age 40 due to the reduction of the ovarian reserve (i.e. the pool of quiescent follicles); however, increasingly more women are seeking to procreate beyond the capacity of their innate biological clocks. Technological advancements in assisted reproduction have made this a possibility. | |
| Starting a family later in life is not always a matter of choice. In fact, infertility often forces patients to attempt in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure that may take time to be successful. Cancer is yet another example where afflicted young women are forced to delay starting a family, while preserving their capacity of future fertility. On the other hand many women are choosing to conceive later in age. We reside in a rapidly evolving society and many of the decisions involved with the responsibilities of parenthood are more heavily influenced than what would have been decades ago. Today, socio-economic factors play pivotal roles on influencing a young woman’s decision to delay starting a family. US statistics have reported that from 1973 to 2009, the birth rate for women in their 20s has declined steadily over the last two decades, while increasing for women in their 30s. A similar increase is seen for women in their 40s perhaps suggesting changes in personal and professional priorities for women of younger ages. Notably, the birth rate for women in their 50s depicts a remarkable 300 percent increase since 1997, the year when data for women age 50 and over first became available. |