Fried, poached, boiled, scrambled… eggs are one of my fav breakfast treats.  Over cooked eggs are never high on the menu.  And when it comes to our own little ova, we think time is on our side. This is true for a growing number of Americans who are waiting to have children. 

There are more than a dozen good reasons to let the chicken come before the egg;  getting that education, finding the perfect partner, or reaching spiritual or emotional maturity.   In fact twenty percent of women have their first child after age thirty-five.  In any case, one thing is clear… the egg timer will go off. Age related infertility is one of a variety of reasons a woman may have a problem getting preggers.  The truth is, once you hit the mid-thirties, the ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term begins to decline significantly, and it accelerates in our late thirties and into our forties. 

You might say -- Bridget, it only takes one egg, much less a full carton to do the trick.  True chickie, but here is a little ovum 101. When you are a fresh young chick-a-dee, you carry about a million immature eggs in your ovaries.  Then, when puberty begins, one egg will mature each month for ovulation… and hundreds of the immature eggs will also die every month.  The numbers can look like this: a teen chick can have about 400,000 immature eggs, that number can dwindle to 25,000 by age 37, and about 1,000 by 51.  That’s a lot of omelet.  Couple the lack of a farm fresh egg supply with the fact that age can affect the ability to carry a pregnancy to term.  Each time a woman becomes pregnant in her twenties, she has a 12-15 percent chance of having a miscarriage.  However, if the woman is in her forties, she has close to a fifty percent risk of miscarriage. 

For those of us who have chosen to wait, but have our own mother hen plans for the future, these numbers may sound alarming.  Don’t lay an egg – yet!  Consider the fact that in one year, a woman age 35-39 has approximately a sixty percent chance of conceiving when trying.  That rate can jump to eighty-five percent over two years.  Let’s remember that while statistics can give valuable info on the likelihood of pregnancy and carrying that pregnancy to term - statistics say little about any one woman’s individual chances of having a baby.   

So if you are in the “I’m waiting” hen house, there are some things you should know about preventing infertility.  First off -- don’t smoke!  Not only is straw bedding flammable, but smoking can be harmful to a woman’s ovaries.  Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarettes can interfere with your body’s ability to create estrogen, and that could cause eggs to be more prone to genetic abnormalities. Be a free-range chick by maintaining a healthy weight.  This isn’t about the waddle you might have under your arm.  It’s because having too much body fat can cause a woman’s body to create too much estrogen, resulting in natural birth control.  Skinny chicks are not off the hook.  Having too little body fat may lead to a lack of estrogen and the reproductive cycle could shut down.  About twelve percent of all infertility cases are caused by weighing too much or too little. 

Betcha didn’t know that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a leading cause of infertility?  This is why protecting yourself with safer sex and annual exams should be part of any hen’s routine.  Some STIs can scar the fallopian tubes, preventing eggs from travelling out to the uterus and possibly leading to tubal pregnancy.  Now before you think your eggs have bought the farm, talk to your health care provider.   By simply understanding your monthly fertility pattern you can increase the odds of a successful pregnancy.

As for this chick, I’m not sure if I’m ready for a brood of my own -- yet.  If your clock is a-tickin’ and you are worried about gathering your eggs while you can, the best advice is to stay healthy to keep them at their peak freshness.  Did someone say brunch?!