Why is it harder to conceive older?

[Itsbrtnybish]

Is it because you are born with a Finite amount of eggs? So as you age you have less?
What if you’ve a high ovarian reserve just generally speaking and for your age? Does that mean it won’t be harder?

what about if you’re of advanced maternal age (say 36) but youre healthy (weight and health conditions), don’t smoke, take supplements for egg quality and have a high AMH? does that mean you’ve redressed the balance or are there other things at play?

What supplements did your husband take?

No there isn’t a way to test egg quality really other than to try and fertilise that egg and if it does fertilise then you can genetically test it.

@Itsbrtnybish if it means anything....there's a thread on Mumsnet called 47 and pregnant! So...
It's a wide spectrum.

Yeah and we don’t really want to go down that route, I’m quite distrustful of private ivf practitioners, in my experience they try to sell sell sell so likely would be told we’d need ivf plus icsi and full genetic kareotyping (again)

I suppose and my own mother had me (eldest at 36) and my sibling at 40/41

I also know a large people who conceived in their 40s - including many family members where I know for definite they would have been natural conceptions and weren't sneaky adoptions - and it's so frustrating that they all managed to conceive against the odds, whereas I seem to be firmly stuck at the 95% chance of not conceiving 😕. I had a tough time TTC my two daughters so it shouldn't be any surprise that my luck has now run out, but I guess I was hoping that luck just may be on my side for one (third time's a charm and all that....)

Remember sperm quality deteriorates with age too so conception can take longer because you need a healthy, chromosomally normal egg and sperm to meet

But doesn’t that drop off happen later for men, around 40?

plus if his analysis was fine?

There’s lots of different studies done on this, lots say it typically starts to decline in men from around age 30-35 with the best years being 20-29, a study done showed that 18-28% of men age 35-40 were unable to achieve pregnancy within 12 months of trying.

It’s all a game of chance really OP. It’s the tedious and frustrating thing about TTC, anything else you try to do you would have better chances the more times you try, you’d get better at it, improve at it etc, but with trying to conceive every month you’ve got the same chance as you had the month before. It’s such a mental battle and is really hard. I would honestly say as much as you can just keep yourselves healthy and try not to overwhelm yourself with information because the reality is there’s very little you can do about it, it is life’s lottery in a lot of ways. Good luck x

OP are you monitoring your own cycle? Can you recognise when you are at your most fertile?
I had secondary infertility, I have a significant age gap and losses between children. I found monitoring my cycle very helpful.
Internal scar tissue removal and clomid helped me to conceive eventually.
I'd get monitoring and timing intercourse, if no joy in a few months, and if more children are very important to you both, then get a private referral for further tests.
Be aware that this not an easy path and already having children will mean there is no nhs treatments available to you.

poorer egg maturity due to hormonal changes?

I had my first baby at 39 and second at 42. Two miscarriages in between. I had no issues conceiving - usually happened first time - but sadly they didn't all stick. I've always eaten well, would have registered as mildly overweight when I stated. Smoked heavily for 20 years. I'm told I look young, only have a few grey hairs at 47. I think a lot is down to genetics and it's the luck of the draw.

The day 21 progesterone test results can highlight egg maturity/hormonal issues.

Conceived first child easily but took 3 years and one round of a tablet called clomid to conceive second child.

I had this issue with my first from the nhs but obviously this depends on when you ovulated, it caused a lot stress but later I’ve learned that test at specifically 21 days is only really useful if you’ve a 28 day cycle

The dr who ran my tests didn’t seem to think so, I’ve had amh, lh v fsh, estraidol, thyroid, testosterone checked and a test 7 dpo all fine

Very true.

this btw was where I read 40 from (also echoed by the fertility dr we saw)

www.britishfertilitysociety.org.uk/fei/at-what-age-does-fertility-begin-to-decrease/#:~:text=Men%20produce%20sperm%20daily.,sex%20and%20have%20an%20ejaculation.

Yeah I’m on it with my cycle, track bbt, opks and cm.

we’ve had all the initial tests and we’re just told that it can take 1 sometimes take 2 years