Couples that are enduring fertility problems frequently feel alone throughout their battle. They will notice other men and women with their own children and question why it’s not them. They overlook the fact that there are so many other couples in the world that have gone through or are currently enduring the same things they are.
There are actually around 7.3 million women in the United States alone between fifteen and forty-four who have problems getting pregnant. Most of these women aren’t even aware that they have a problem until actually start trying to have children. Some women have have actually already had children with issues like polycystic ovarian syndrome(PCOS), but the diagnosis didn’t arrive until after the children had. For most couples however this is not the case.
There are countless couples who have gone through fertility treatments of one description or another. Often when seeing happy couples with their children, couples who are having problems don’t even consider that perhaps that parent had to receive some sort of help too! Chances are (given how common fertility problems are) that someone you know will have had help of some degree.
Some Numbers…
In 2002 11.9% of women in the United States between the ages of fifteen and forty-four had received some kind of infertility services. Of these:
- 6.1% had received professional advice,
- 5.5% had received some sort of medical assistance to prevent miscarriages,
- 4.8% had undergone a test relating to their fertility,
- 3.8% of women had received drugs to aid ovulation, and
- 1.1% of women had undergone artificial insemination.
In addition, 11.8% of women in this age group have impaired ‘fecundity’ which basically means they have problems successfully carrying a baby to full term.
It is commonly known that as women age their ability to become pregnant decreases with the decline in the number of their eggs. However, the percent of childless women who have ever received any infertility service between the ages of 35 and 39 years of age is 15.2%. Childless women who have received any infertility service between the ages of 30 and 34 years of ages was 17.3% and women between the ages of 15 and 29 was only 2.9%.
As odd as it sounds, these statistics are actually encouraging, because it says that of women without any children at all by age 39, most of them hadn’t sought any help – implying they chose not to have children, rather than couldn’t. The flip side is that if you really want to have children, chances are you will.
Another way of looking at these numbers is too consider how many women in each age bracket are infertile (only childless women counted):
- 27.4% of women are infertile by the ages of 40 and 44
- 22.6% of women are infertile by 35 and 39 years of age
- 16.9% of women are infertile by the ages of 30 and 34
- 11% of married women are infertile by the ages of 15 and 29
Keep in mind that just because there are problems getting or maintaining a pregnancy, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. There always remains a range of options, including a whole host of ways to massively boost your chances of getting pregnant naturally.
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