actual age vs. "maternal age"

[skerriesmum]

Just curious. I thought I just read somewhere that these two ages can differ (e.g. you might be only 33 but have a maternal age of 39, and so have problems conceiving.) How do doctors determine this, by harvesting eggs or some other test?

Hi skerries

I'm pretty sure that they found out in a scan for me when I was already pg with DS2. My actual age was 37 and my maternal age was 29 or something! So it can work the other way around. Otherwise I guess it must be that test you can buy that is all over the media at the moment which determines how much fertile time you might have left?

Thanks riley! What test are you talking about? I'm hoping it's a reverse age thing too, I'm "only" 35 and look and feel younger (what does that mean really though...)

There is a hormonal test they can do, it was mentioned on `The Baby Race' (programme on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago) but I don't know anything about it (found the Channel 4 website but couldn't see any info on it).