Age and Fertility: Getting Pregnant in Your 30s

Many consider the 30s the happy-medium age for motherhood. You're more apt to be secure in your career and in your relationship, which will provide a firm foundation for your growing family. Hopefully, you and your partner have also had the chance to have some adventures together before you embark on parenthood, the greatest adventure of all.

That's the good news. The bad news is there's a tremendous difference between your ability to get pregnant in your early versus your late 30s. As the decade progresses, a woman's fertility goes into free fall. That's why fertility experts caution women in their 30s not to wait too long, particularly if they want more than one child.

Pregnancy at any age comes with distinct advantages and disadvantages. We checked in with fertility specialists, financial consultants, relationship gurus, and 30-something moms to provide a realistic picture of what it's like to have a child in your 30s.

Pros

In many ways, having children in your 30s makes financial and practical sense. You probably have a higher income and a better financial cushion than in your 20s, because you've had more time to become established in the working world. Yet you may have more flexibility than a woman in her 40s, who might find it personally and professionally difficult to interrupt a high-level career to have a child.

Marnie Azner, an independent financial adviser based in Morris Plains, New Jersey, advises women to do what they can to mitigate the financial consequences of taking time off to have a child. "Quitting your job is going to hurt your 401k, pension fund, Social Security benefits, and chances of vesting," she says. "Of course, you should never make the choice to have a child or not based on finances alone, but if you educate yourself, you may find there are ways to minimize the financial damage of such a choice. For example, if your 401k plan is going to vest next year, can you hold off on getting pregnant for a few months, so you won't miss that opportunity?"

Azner also advises women who want to stay in the job market to maintain their professional skills and contacts so it will be easier to return. "Keep up with the trade publications, attend conferences, have an occasional lunch with a former colleague, or take a course at your community college," she suggests. "These days it's essential to keep up your technological skills, because technology is changing so rapidly. Even if you don't plan to return to work anytime soon, if you keep your hand in, you'll have that option."

Luckily, new moms in their 30s still have a lot of stamina and resilience, qualities that come in handy for parenting young children. While everyone develops differently, women at this age are likely to know themselves better than women in their 20s do and are less likely to be as set in their ways as women in their 40s, says San Francisco psychotherapist Leah Seidler.

Nicole Rogers, director of sales at the San Francisco Marriott, had one child in her 20s, three in her 30s, and one at 41. If she had to choose, she would pick the 30s as the ideal childbearing decade: "Your career is launched, you still look and feel great, and you have the energy to keep up with your kids," she notes. "You're more relaxed about being a parent than you were in your 20s, so you can have more fun, and you aren't as tired as you are in your 40s. You think you can do it all, and in your 30s, you almost can."

Cons

Every study you read or expert you consult will agree: 35 is the age of reckoning for women when it comes to having children. In your early 30s, your chances of getting pregnant are only slightly lower than in your late 20s and your risk of a miscarriage or a baby with Down syndrome only slightly higher — but at 35, that decline in fertility begins to accelerate. Age 35 is also the point when Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities become more of a concern, so experts routinely recommend amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, or other detailed fetal screening during pregnancy from the mid-30s on.

Miscarriage rates also rise slowly but steadily as women age, as do pregnancy-related complications. A woman over 35 is more likely than a younger woman to have an ectopic pregnancy. Cesarean rates are also higher for women over 35: First-time mothers this age have a 40 percent chance of a c-section delivery compared to 14 percent of first-time mothers in their 20s. Experts say these increased cesarean rates are caused by pregnancy problems like fetal distress or prolonged second-stage labor, which are more common for older mothers.

Of course, every woman ages at her own pace, but experts say that at 35, a woman needs to get serious if she wants to have children — especially if she wants more than one. "I always tell women to think about that second pregnancy," says fertility specialist James Goldfarb, director of infertility services and IVF at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. "At age 35 or 36, many women need only minor, if any, medical intervention to get pregnant, but by the time they're ready for their next child, say at 39, those same medications are less likely to work."

Your odds of success

Goldfarb, who sees couples struggling with fertility issues every day in his Cleveland practice, puts the statistics into perspective: "There's a clear drop-off in fertility between ages 29 and 35, but the majority of 35-year-old women still won't have a problem," he says. "However, by 38 or 39, age becomes a big factor."

Overall, in your 30s you have about a 15 percent chance of getting pregnant in any single ovulation cycle, according to leading fertility specialist Sherman Silber, director of the Infertility Center of St. Louis at St. Luke's Hospital in Missouri and author of four best-selling fertility books, including How to Get Pregnant. Your chances of conceiving within a year of starting to try are about 75 percent. But since fertility wanes as the decade progresses, in your late 30s your chance of getting pregnant within a year drops to 65 percent.

Miscarriage risk rises slowly throughout the 30s, from about 12 percent for ages 30 to 34 to 18 percent for ages 35 to 39. First-time moms over 35 have a 40 percent chance of having a c-section, compared to 14 percent for first-time mothers in their 20s.

At age 30, the risk of carrying a child with Down syndrome is one in 759. That risk jumps to one in 302 when you're 35.

Age 35 to 39 is also when women are most likely to have twins — even without the fertility treatments that raise the odds for multiple births — of women at any other age. Typically, you release one egg a cycle. But as you get older, your FSH (Follicle stimulating hormone) level increases. When this hormonal surge occurs, there's a chance that you may release more than one egg during a cycle, upping the odds of a multiple birth. So while older women are statistically less likely to get pregnant, if they do get pregnant, they're more likely to have twins.

Fact-checked by the BabyCenter editorial staff and approved by our Medical Advisory Board.

Please visit www.babycenter.com for more information.