More than a quarter of women and a fifth of men experience fertility difficulties by their late thirties – figures which are considerably higher than traditionally reported, newly published information from the HRC-funded Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study shows.
The lifetime experience of a problem with infertility was “common” by the age of 38 in the Dunedin birth cohort, with an infertility problem reported by 22 per cent of the men and 26 per cent of the women.
Infertility was classified as trying to conceive for 12 months or more or seeking medical help to try and conceive, and included fertility difficulties reported when the cohort was aged 38 and also measured when the cohort was aged 32. A fertility problem that was unresolved at age 38 occurred among 40% of affected men and 28% of affected women, and more commonly among men and women who were in their mid to late-thirties when first experiencing this fertility problem.
The findings have recently been published in the international journal Fertility and Sterility.
University of Otago's Dr Thea van Roode, who has been investigating fertility in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study that has followed nearly a thousand Dunedin-born children into adulthood, says: “While the majority of the cohort had become parents by age 38, a substantial proportion still wanted to become parents or have another child in the future when we asked at that time; However, our results highlight this may not be possible.”
She adds: “These findings are important in view of a larger trend towards delaying parenthood. Compared with earlier decades, there is a now a trend in many countries to delay parenthood well past age 30. This is certainly the case in this cohort as at the earlier age 32 assessment only about half had become a parent.”
To read more about these findings, check out the Sunday Star Times.
News article courtesy of the University of Otago