Many Infertile Older Couples Can Conceive

A study by U.S. and Italian researchers has found that increased infertility in older couples is attributable primarily to declines in fertility rates rather than to absolute sterility. This means that many older infertile couples will conceive if they try for an additional year.

A prospective fecundability study involved 782 couples from seven European centers for natural family planning, where the age of the women ranged from 18-40. The per-menstrual-cycle probability of conception was based on a review of daily intercourse records. The number of menstrual cycles required to conceive a clinical pregnancy and the probability of infertility and sterility were derived from the estimated fecundability distributions for men and women of different ages.

Sterility was estimated at about 1% and did not change with age. The percentage of infertility was estimated at 8% for women 19-26, 13-14% for women 27-34, and 18% for women 35-39. Starting in the late 30s, male age was an important factor, with the percentage failing to conceive within 12 cycles increasing from an estimated 18% to 28% between the ages of 35-40. The estimated percentage of infertile couples able to conceive after an additional 12 cycles of trying varied from 43-63%, depending on age.

The study, conducted by David B. Dunson, Ph.D., of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; www.niehs.nih.gov), and colleagues from the University of Padua (Italy; www.unipd.it), was published in the January 2003 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.




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