RSSPregnancy After The Age of 35
Personal Health hormonal imbalance, hormone imbalance symptoms, premenopause No Comments
More and more women are postponing both marriage and children until later in life. Compared to our parents and definitely our grandparents generation women are postponing both of these major life events by as much as 10 years. In previous generations, marriage and child rearing was usually done during the mid to late 20s and early 30s, but this trend is definitely shifting. Women are postponing this for a variety of reasons. Some women did not meet the right man, others wait to be more financially secure and others were waiting until their careers and lives were more stable.
Although there are some definite benefits to postponing child birth, there is a definite and pronounced down side. Most women would be very surprised to find out that fertility levels drop off after the age of 35. Most women probably aren’t even aware that menopause can occur as early as the age of 40. If menopause can occur at 40, then this means that perimenopause can occur as early as the age of 33. Perimenopause is sort of like premenopause, a woman is still fertile and capable of getting pregnant, but it becomes increasingly difficult.
During perimenopause, a woman’s body slows down its production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone; these are the hormones that regulate ovulation. During ovulation, a woman drops a mature egg capable of being fertilized. Prior to perimenopause, this happens each and every month, but after these hormonal imbalance fluctuations occur, ovulation no longer happens every month. Ovulation may happen two months in a row, or it may only occur every 3 to 4 months.
For a lot of women this information may come as a bit of a surprise. 40 years old seems incredibly young for menopause, but it is considered medically normal and possible. Granted, the average age is 52, but 40 is not outside medical norms. Once a woman reaches the age of 35, the hard cold reality is that it is simply more difficult to conceive.