Ladies 30 and over...

Do you feel tremendous pressure TTC??? I was already told by my OB/GYN that I am "getting older and need to start ASAP" I was told this in November right after I turned 30!

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I'm very surprised your obgyn told you that. I just turned 30 this week. My doctors tell me that I am perfectly healthy and should be fine TTC. I always ask my doctors about age and they say it isn't a big difference between late 20's or early 30's.

I've personally been a little stuck on that 30 number though. The only reason I'm going to TTC this year is because of my age. If I was still in my 20's, I would definitely wait. I want to have 2 kids before 35.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I do feel a lot of pressure, but it's all from myself. Our parents don't ask, our close friends don't ask, but I turned 33 recently, and it's starting to get to me.

I can't believe your doctor said that to you! I swear, people are either idiots, or they are just so insensitive.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

i am turning 30 soon...

and i have that number stuck in my head as well...
it really bothers me. i feel like i dont have much time left

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I'm 30 and feel some pressure- only b/c I have a history of endometriosis. I had an ovary removed b/c of it and the doctor at the time told me I should start TTC then! (I was only 25)

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

It's always been lurking in the back of my head and every year it's gotten worse. I'll be 38 in October.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Me too...I'm 33 this summer.

I feel the pressure to get moving.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I personally have felt pressure- considering I have friends on their second kids. Also, the fact that I am turning 33 next week doesn't help matters!

I think that is extremely inappropriate of your doctor to say to you-- both my GYB and my RE called me young. Docs should not be adding to your stress-- unless there is a real reason to worry!

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

i'm 33 and yes - i feel A LOT of pressure.

My OBO said that once you are pregnant into your 35th year - you become high risk...that's just the way it is...healthy or not.

Also - once your husband reaches 40 - the changes for down syndrome increase. Dave is about to turn 38.

Message edited 5/23/2008 12:04:42 PM.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Posted by sugar-magnolia

Posted by davenjess

i'm 33 and yes - i feel A LOT of pressure.

My OBO said that once you are pregnant into your 35th year - you become high risk...that's just the way it is...healthy or not.

Also - once your husband reaches 40 - the changes for down syndrome increase. Dave is about to turn 38.

OMG ! I never knew that about the father being 40!! I'm 33 and Chris is turning 40 next Friday. We officially start trying in August.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

here's an article i found:

ScienceDaily (Jun. 6, 2006) — New research indicates that the genetic quality of sperm worsens as men get older, increasing a man's risk of being infertile, fathering unsuccessful pregnancies and passing along dwarfism and possibly other genetic diseases to his children.

A study led by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, Berkeley, found a steady increase in sperm DNA fragmentation with increasing age of the study participants, along with increases in a gene mutation that causes achondroplasia, or dwarfism. The first changes were observed in men in their early reproductive years.

Earlier research by the same team indicated that male reproductive ability gradually worsens with age, as sperm counts decline and the sperm lose motility and their ability to swim in a straight line. In the current study, the researchers analyzed DNA damage, chromosomal abnormalities and gene mutations in semen samples from the same subjects -- 97 healthy, non-smoking LLNL employees and retirees between 22 and 80 years old -- and found that sperm motility showed a high correlation with DNA fragmentation, which is associated with increased risk of infertility and a reduced probability of fathering a successful pregnancy.

The study, "Advancing age has differential effects on DNA damage, chromatin integrity, gene mutations, and aneuploidies (chromosome abnormalities) in sperm," appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This study shows that men who wait until they're older to have children are not only risking difficulties conceiving, they could also be increasing the risk of having children with genetic problems," said co-lead author Andrew Wyrobek of LLNL.

"We know that women have a biological time clock," said co-lead author Brenda Eskenazi of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, "with an increase in risk of miscarriage and producing children with trisomy (an extra chromosome, such as in Downs syndrome) as women age, and with a seemingly abrupt end of fertility around perimenopause. Our research suggests that men, too, have a biological time clock -- only it is different. Men seem to have a gradual rather than an abrupt change in fertility and in the potential ability to produce viable healthy offspring."

Unlike in women, the researchers found no correlation between male aging and chromosome changes that cause Down's syndrome and other forms of trisomies -- such as Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, triple X syndrome, and XYY in offspring -- that are associated with varying types and severity of infertility as well as physical and neurological abnormalities. They did conclude, however, that some older men could be at risk for fathering children with dwarfism, and that "a small fraction of men are at increased risks for transmitting multiple genetic and chromosomal defects."

In the case of Apert syndrome, a serious disfiguring birth defect, the researchers found that the effects of advancing male age may differ among different groups of men. Apert syndrome gene mutations increased in the sperm of a second group of men recruited in the Baltimore inner city by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, while no age effects were observed in the group of men recruited in California.

Wyrobek noted that these differences in finding suggest that factors other than age may be involved, raising the possibility that socioeconomic or dietary factors or ethnic background may also be involved in how age affects the quality of human sperm.

"Since some forms of genomic damage change with age and others don't," he said, "overall genomic sperm quality cannot be measured by any single sperm test." Dwarfism, a genetic disorder that affects bone growth, is the most common growth-related birth defect, occurring in about one in every 25,000 births. It occurs in all races and in both males and females and causes affected individuals to have very short arms and legs, limiting their full adult height to about four feet.

Wyrobek, Eskenazi and their colleagues analyzed semen from the volunteers using a variety of state-of-the art methods for detecting genetic and chromosomal defects in human sperm. A flow cytometer method was used to detect DNA fragmentation and chromatin defects in collaboration with co-author Don Evenson at South Dakota State University. Gene mutations in the achrondroplasia gene and in the Apert sydrome gene were measured using highly sensitive PCR--based methods developed by co-authors Ethylin Jabs at Johns Hopkins and Norman Arnheim at USC in Los Angeles. The team also used a Livermore-developed chromosome analysis system called sperm FISH (fluorescence in-situ hybridization). They found a strong correlation between age and sperm DNA fragmentation, with genetic mutations associated with dwarfism gradually increasing by about two per cent for every year of age.

The study included at least 15 men from each age decade from 20 to 60 years, and 25 men 60 to 80 years old. The researchers gathered extensive medical, lifestyle and occupational exposure history from the men and excluded current cigarette smokers and men with current fertility or reproductive problems, a previous semen analysis with zero sperm count, vasectomy, history of prostate cancer or undescended testicle, or exposure to chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer.

Understanding the effects of paternal age has become more important as increasing numbers of men are having children at older ages. Since 1980 there has been about a 40 percent increase in 35- to 49-year-old men fathering children, and a 20 percent decrease in fathers under 30. Studies have also shown that it takes longer for older men to conceive, even when the age of the mother is considered.

Other authors of the study are Francesca Pearson from LLNL, Suzanne Young from UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, Irene Tiemann-Boege from UCLA, and Rivka Glaser from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

The study was primarily funded by several grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission to ensure national security and to apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I will be 33 this year, and I do feel a little pressure. I'm not as concerned about my health as I am being a mother who can have enough energy to keep up with the demanding tasks of motherhood.

BUT....30's are the new 20's, right!?

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

NONE, I am the only one putting the pressure on myself. I will be 31 next week

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I'm 32 and had a baby at 31. I feel great pressure to be "done" byt 35. The jury is still out if done is 2 or 3 kids.

I worry constantly about not getting preg easily this time

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

We aren't TTC yet, but my doctor told me the same thing at the last appt (I will be 30 in July). She didn't say it in a mean way; just that if at all possible, it is good to have your children before you hit the high risk category of 35. I think it was good for me to hear--I had always thought I'd have time to do everything, and children were kind of the last thing on my list, but hearing the increased risks as part of the high-risk group did make me re-evaluate.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I was 32 when I got pregnant. Look how many young women are having difficulty. There are many of us who had babies well into our thirties. I just began dating dh At 30!

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Message edited 5/23/2008 5:15:31 PM.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Posted by sugar-magnolia

Posted by davenjess

i'm 33 and yes - i feel A LOT of pressure.

My OBO said that once you are pregnant into your 35th year - you become high risk...that's just the way it is...healthy or not.

Also - once your husband reaches 40 - the changes for down syndrome increase. Dave is about to turn 38.

OMG ! I never knew that about the father being 40!! I'm 33 and Chris is turning 40 next Friday. We officially start trying in August.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I think what your dr said was EXTREMELY unprofessional!! I would have said something to him/her about their comment if that was directed towards me. As for a man over 40...I've never heard that either. Honestly, I think it will happen when it's meant to happen. You cannot stress over a situation you cannot control.

I have a friend that TTC for over a year. She kept track of everything, meet with IF doctors..you name it. After a year of planning and stressing out over why she wasn't getting pregnant..her and her DH took a vacation to clear their heads.....well, she came back and a month later found out she was pregnant. It will happen when it's meant to happen

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I don't think the comment is nearly as inappropriate as everyone else does. It's a fact of life that fertility decreases with age and maybe your doctor just doesn't want his patients to think that it's just as easy to get pregnant in your late 30s as it is in your early 30s. Given that you just turned 30 I wouldn't stress about it.

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

ugh, I would have B-slapped that doc if I were you! What a moron to say something like that.

I'm in my 30s and I started feeling pressure to get pg. It didn't help because it stressed me out for a while and as a result, I didn't get pg. For the last six weeks or so, I had the "what ever happens, happens" attitude and saw that bfp not too long after. I also think it was timing and omg, if dh and I bd'd anymore that month I think his **** would have fallen off!

Anyway, don't listen to that doc and TTC according to YOUR schedule!!!

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

My OB/GYN and RE weren't concerned with my age.........I was 32 when we started TTC. I will be 33 when the baby is born. The only pressure I had to get pregnant was from myself because I didn't think I would be in my thirties before I had a baby since I got married at 23. Don't stress yourself, you are still plenty young and have plenty of time. Good luck!!

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

Re: Ladies 30 and over...

I think about it, but I don't put too much pressure on myself. The only thing that bothers me in regard to both our ages, is that we don't want to be "old" moms and dads, and (God willing), by the time we have our 2nd or 3rd, we might be!

I just turned 33, and DH will be 36 this summer.

Sometimes I still feel like I'm 25!