Conceiving after 35 is next to impossible—right?

After she turned 42, Teesha Karr thought she was done having kids. Six, in her mind, was perfect. And besides, she was pretty sure she had started menopause. For the past six months she’d had all the same signs as her friends: hot flashes, mood swings, tender breasts. She and her husband decided they could probably safely do away with contraception. But less than a month later, Karr felt a familiar twinge of pain in her ovary—the same twinge she’d felt every time she’d been pregnant before.

Karr felt embarrassed. “Teenagers accidentally get pregnant. Forty-two-year-old women don’t usually accidentally get pregnant,” she told me. But, really, 42-year-old women accidentally getting pregnant is surprisingly common. Nearly 4 percent of all new babies are born to women 40 and older, and about a third of pregnancies in this age range are unplanned, according to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics. It’s a frequent enough occurrence that the plots of Downton Abbey, Sex Education, And Just Like That, Grey’s Anatomy, and Black-ish have depended on it.

Many women still believe that by their 40s, unintended pregnancy just isn’t something they have to worry about. After all, many of us are told our whole lives that our biological clock is ticking, that our fertility plummets after 35, and that if we wait too long we’ll likely need some form of reproductive technology to get pregnant—if we can get pregnant at all. If conceiving at this age is so hard, surely you wouldn’t get pregnant by accident, right?

Non-paywall link

  • KaTaRaNaGa@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    What’s the non-hormonal arm implant called? Haven’t heard of it and a Google search is not giving answers.

        • Kit
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          Ah that would explain why it didn’t work well for me. My OBGYN said it was non hormonal but she must have been mistaken.

          • KaTaRaNaGa@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            Boggles the mind sometimes the trust we put in experts… I was scratching my head going, “How can something in your arm prevent pregnancy if it’s non-hormonal?”

            I genuinely have no idea how a professional could have come to another conclusion. Not trying to be rude. I really don’t understand it.

            • Kit
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              8 months ago

              Yeah, it’s difficult to find quality care with people who know their shit. I’m so glad I got my tubes tied so I don’t have to deal with the stress of doctors and pills and IUDs and implants anymore. It’s not a realistic option for folks who want to have kids someday tho. We need better care.