To give up contraception at age 52?

[TemporaryNC1234]

AIBU to think that I can give up on contraception at the age of 52? Or perhaps this is more a WWYD?

We've used condoms since conception of DD 20 years ago. DH is now not getting on well with condoms (understandable at his age - early 60s) so we'd like to stop, but the very last thing I need is an unwanted pregnancy.

It feels ridiculous to be worrying about contraception at my age, but NHS says you need contraception until 55 unless you've gone a year without periods. I've been on HRT for a few years and still bleed, so it's likely I'm peri still as otherwise I probably wouldn't bleed on the type I'm on. Really can't face changing anything hormonal so don't want to do Mirena or anything like that as I've only just found stability with the HRT I'm on and hated being on the pill when I was younger. WWYD?

YABU - keep going with the condoms
YANBU - no contraception necessary

Yes, it does.

Enjoy living like you'll be struck by lightning then

I googled for my own age. For OP, pregnancy is even less likely.

"n summary: The combination of a woman's age and the unreliability of the withdrawal method makes the chance of pregnancy at 48 extremely low. While natural conception is not impossible, it is statistically improbable.... "

And what were those sources?

Should be able to click on sources in the convo, the data on fertility beyond 50 is pretty comprehensive.

https://chatgpt.com/share/688a8e43-e5c4-8001-934e-207490f8959c

So if you look at the statistics in the sources there were 0.8 births per 10,000 women aged 50-54 in one year. Which is very similar to the probability of getting struck by lightening in a whole lifetime given by chat gpt. So presumably women aged 50-54 are about 80 times less likely to be struck by lightening than get pregnant in one year. And presumably many of those women are using some form of contraception. Or not having sex with a man. So if you are not using contraception and having sex with a man regularly I’d guess that your chance of getting pregnant could be as much as 1000 times higher than being stuck by lightening over a year. Very poor effort by chat gpt.

Why hasn’t DH had a vasectomy?

Be prepared to still fall pregnant.

What are you talking about? There's nothing wrong with taking reasonable precautions. I don't go swimming outside when there's a thunderstorm and I have a Mirena even though I would be highly unlikely to get pregnant at my age even without it. But I don't wrap myself in cotton wool, and I take plenty of low level risks every day.

If my quality of life was seriously affected by not being able to swim or stand on high ground during a thunderstorm, maybe I would decide it was a risk worth taking. If my quality of life was seriously affected by having an IUD I might decide it was worth the risk of unprotected sex. But it's not. The only downside to getting my IUD inserted was an hour out of my life for the appointment and the drive there and back, and some slight discomfort during the procedure. That is it. Why wouldn't I?

I don't really care tbh, it's your life. Do as you wish online stranger

That's objectively false. There are endless studies into female fertility, and they're pretty conclusive.

The vast majority of women are infertile by 45. Argue with mother nature.

I wanted to reply earlier but too busy BFing my "don't worry dear I'm far too old" extra baby.... I'm 47. We had been using withdrawal - it worked for the previous 13 years.

He's lovely now he's here but it was a shock. Definitely pursue either contraception or the snip for your DH.

47 is not 51. Women over 50 are highly unlikely to still be producing viable eggs even if they are still ovulating at all (and periods are not a certain indicator of ovulation).

I was just trying to use the sources given in chat got to show they don’t give the conclusions reached by chat gpt. I could have also pointed out that the birth data they use will include women who don’t conceive naturally, which would argue the other way. I don’t have a point to make about fertility. My point is that you can just ask Chat gpt and announce that that’s the answer. You have to check how it got there.

It really does seem like you do care to be honest. Are you just trying to make yourself feel better because you made a different choice to me, even though the choice I made, as I said, has no impact whatsoever on my day to day life?

Still don't care. Enjoy your life

Oh I do! Especially because I know I'm never going to be pregnant again!

This thread reminded me of this cartoon...

Not really. Nobody should be forced to have a surgical procedure they don't want.

That's the same - or lower - risk as getting pg in your 20s or 30s using contraception, though.

Possibly, but given we have a fairly easy way of preventing it, why wouldn't we?

There are plenty of unwanted/unplanned pg in women in their 20s and 30s, some go on to have the dc, some don't, most would rather it hadn't happened, and would have avoided it if they could have easily.

And the probability of carrying a healthy baby to term is very different between those two cohorts, so the consequences of an unplanned pg are more likely to be undesirable in older women, so there is a greater incentive to avoid it (for me).

Possibly, but given we have a fairly easy way of preventing it, why wouldn't we?

There are plenty of unwanted/unplanned pg in women in their 20s and 30s, some go on to have the dc, some don't, most would rather it hadn't happened, and would have avoided it if they could have easily.

And the probability of carrying a healthy baby to term is very different between those two cohorts, so the consequences of an unplanned pg are more likely to be undesirable in older women, so there is a greater incentive to avoid it (for me).

But those women in their 20s/30s, if using contraception, are statistically more likely to fall pregnant than a woman in her 50s who isn't using anything.

I was told when I had my last Mirena fitted that it could stay in until after the menopause, although I had no way of knowing if I'd been through it because I never had periods on Mirena (apart from after five years when it was losing its efficacy, a bit of spotting). Given Mirena stops working after 5/6 years, and I was 45 at the time, if there was any risk of me falling pg the nurse would surely have told me to use other methods when I turned 50 or have a new Mirena fitted?