James Armatage is a leading Specialist in Reproductive Medicine & Surgery and is Consultant Gynaecologist at Cheshire Fertility.
With over 30 years experience in the profession and at the forefront of the latest techniques and processes to guarantee success, James is the perfect person to take part in our interview series, covering the questions we get asked the most often about fertility and IVF.
In this article, we are looking at conceiving when you are 40 and over.
“How long does it take to get pregnant”
Most couples will conceive within 12 months of trying. If conception has not occurred within 12 months, it is appropriate to seek advice from a general practitioner or a fertility specialist.
“What are the chances of conceiving over 40?”
The chance of conceiving varies very much depending on a patients age
The chances of a couple conceiving are 70% within 6 months and 82% within 12 months.
As people get older, their egg count reduce and their chances of conceiving becomes far less. There will be people who will conceive in their late 40’s but this is quite rare.
For the patients who are 40 and above it is very appropriate to perform investigations to check their ovarian reserve. For patients where their ovarian reserve is very low, it would be appropriate for them to consider egg donation.
“What is egg donation?”
Egg donation is the process where a couple who are wishing to conceive use the eggs from a young donor who will produce good quality eggs. Those eggs will be removed from the donor in an IVF type process. The eggs will be fertilised with the sperm and then are replaced into the woman who are wishing to conceive.
The egg donor undergoes a stimulation process before the eggs are harvested.
The egg recipient, the woman who wishes to conceive, only has the lining of her womb, the endometrium, stimulated prior to the eggs been replaced.
There is more information here about egg donation.
You can see the whole video series here on the Assured Fertility YouTube Channel.
If you have any questions or would like to arrange to see a fertility specialist, call us on 0333 234 0895 now.