People often ask, you know, what is the relationship between age and fertility and unfortunately as both males and females age our fertility declines. There are some fairly sharp declines probably at around age 30, again at around age 35-36, and then at around 40 and even beyond that things tend to slide further. So we try if we can to have people have children as soon as they feel that it is right for them in their lives. Delaying childbearing for a long period of time can create a lot of heartache because the chance of pregnancy will go down significantly and the chance of miscarriage will rise because we have to remember human eggs are made when the woman is before she is even born and from then on they are in a relatively quiescent state where they are not really changing and that is a long time for an individual cell to remain absolutely perfect for long, for decades really. Even males have declining fertility as they age and after age 40 we tend to see more children born to fathers who are older who have dwarfism or potentially schizophrenia or some other medical problems that can crop up and I think it is important for males also to realize that the fertilize ability of the sperm maybe actually lower as they get older as well. So it may not be just more difficult to get pregnant but it may be more likely that they have babies with significant problems. That tends to be a relatively smaller risk overall but it is something we need to take into consideration.
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