When is a woman most fertile?
Female fertility is a combination of many different parameters.
A woman cannot conceive throughout her menstrual cycle. Women are also not equally fertile during their reproductive life. Also, women of the same age have different fertility depending on their lifestyle and general health status.
The fertilization of the egg can only occur in a very short “fertility window” during the woman’s menstrual cycle. The egg is released from the follicle, and can be fertilized by sperm in the fallopian tube for twenty-four hours. Sperm on the other hand can fertilize the egg for about three days. Thus, having regular intercourse before ovulation and during ovulation is the right time to achieve a pregnancy.
Women are born with a finite number of eggs. Each month, in addition to the egg released at ovulation, a large number of eggs are destroyed by the process of atresia. As a result, the eggs are depleted and at some point in a woman’s life, around the age of 50, menopause occurs.
The best quality eggs are used at the beginning of reproductive life, that is, at a younger age. Thus, with age, the number of eggs decreases, their quality deteriorates, the chances of a woman getting pregnant decrease and the chances of a pregnancy leading to miscarriage increase. This is because the percentage of eggs with chromosomal abnormalities is increased in older women.
The age of the woman therefore seems to be the most important factor in female fertility and the chances of achieving a pregnancy decrease with age, although there is variation from woman to woman.
As a general rule, before the age of 35 the chances of pregnancy are higher. Younger women before the age of 30 have even higher chances. A 20-year-old woman has about a 20 percent chance of achieving pregnancy each month with natural conception, while this percentage drops to 40 percent at the age of 40. Even in assisted reproduction methods, younger women have significantly higher pregnancy rates.
However, at all ages there are ways to improve a woman’s fertility.
Lifestyle and general health play a very important role.
Avoiding smoking is extremely important.
Smoking negatively affects eggs and creates complications in a possible pregnancy. Limiting alcohol and caffeine intake helps, while moderate and reasonable consumption does not have a negative effect.
Maintaining a correct Body Mass Index, avoiding obesity, and a balanced diet such as the Mediterranean diet seem to help. Obesity in particular seems to have an extremely negative effect on both conception and ovulation and creates a series of complications in pregnancy. Good regulation of thyroid function has a positive effect on fertility.
While, in recent years, the role of vitamin D in reproduction has also emerged, with its lack having a negative effect on conception and the completion of pregnancy.
