Dr. Indu Gopal MBBS, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology) Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine Fertility Specialist at Cloudnine Fertlity JP nagar, Bangalore Woman's Age and Fertility Ifyou are somebody who has thought of being pregnant much later in life, you are bound to be surrounded ‘by questions like- how does my age affect my pregnancy? Many of us are leaving it later to start a family than ever before. Recent statistics reveal that since the 1990s the rates for women giving birth at age 30 or over have gone up, while the rates for women giving birth aged under 20 have fallen, There are many factors which make having babies less important for young couples than it used to be, including going for higher education, developing a career, and financial pressures to stay in the job market. Women in their twenties have a good chance of becoming pregnant as a result of a relatively greater number of eggs in their ovaries. Additionally, a larger percentage of those eggs are normal genetically. Since a woman is born with all of the eggs that they will have in their lifetime, the older she gets the fewer eggs are left. In addition, as a woman ages the percentage of genetically normal eggs remaining decreases. This is why women have a decreasing fertility rate, increased miscarriage rate and increased chance of birth defects like Down syndrome as they age. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority's "Your guide to infertility" states that "At 35 you're half as fertile as when you were at 25; at 40 you're half as fertile as when you were 35". This means that it can suddenly take much longer to get pregnant when you hit your late thirties/ early forties and you may have problems conceiving at all