By Chioma Umeha
Age they say is a thing of the mind. But in
reality, age is defined by wikipedia as the length of time an organism has
lived. Aging therefore is a multidimensional process of physical,
psychological, and social changes that take place in human which ultimately may
redefine the functionality of human organism.
On the other hand, fertility could be referred to
as the normal or natural capability of giving life, put differently, fertility
could be said to be the ability to conceive and have children, the ability to
become pregnant through normal and natural means.
However, it has been observed and scientifically
proven that the chances of couples bearing children reduce as they advance in
age.
It has been acknowledged that fertility declines
as we age, but with all the reports of couples becoming parents after age of
40, the full impact of age on fertility may not be really appreciated.
According to medical research both woman and man
experience decline in fertility as their age progress. For instance, the
ability and possibility of a couple whose age have advance to say 35 for the
woman and 40 for the man to have children through the normal and natural
conception after intercourse declines. The cycle goes on and on even as they
advance to 50 years and above. At this stage if becomes very glaring and
obvious that natural conception is almost impossible and by implication a
serious case of infertility has really set in.
In most cases, we see the age of the woman as the
most important fertility reducing factor that must be dealt with. This can
often make it quiet difficult to determine the root cause of infertility. This
is because age is one factor that usually comes to mind when a couple faces
pregnancy difficulties. It means that age actually plays a significant role in
determining female fertility.
The truth is that, as a woman progresses in age,
the number of active or viable eggs in her ovary reduces significantly, her
menstrual cycles becomes irregular and shorter as she nears menopause, the
endometrium may become thinner and less accommodating to fertilized eggs,
vaginal secretions can become less fluid and more hostile to sperm and so on.
All these factors help to further compound the woman’s fertility dilemma
occasioned by age.
One may ask. “Is this the end of the road for the
couple in terms of child bearing”? The answer is capital “NO”.
Thanks to the breakthroughs in the field of human
medicine, particularly the discovery of In vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment,
which has made it possible for couples with fertility challenges to achieve
conception. Suffice it to say that the IVF treatment has put smiles on the lips
of several older couples as they could as well have their own children, a feat
which was hitherto impossible. Interestingly, since the advent of the IVF more
and more couples with fertility challenges including women who are well over 70
years old have benefited from the treatment all over the world including
Nigeria.
Cheering as the IVF option for overcoming
fertility challenges may seem, it is very important that couples start early
enough to have children instead of delaying for one reason or the other as age
may later pose a serious threat to their fertility status.
