Natural Medicine Update

STUDY: Most healthy couples get pregnant within two years

JOURNAL: European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

AUTHORS: Dr. David Dunson

ABSTRACT: Most healthy couples who are worried because the woman is not pregnant after a year of trying will conceive during the second year, a new study shows.

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COMMENTARY: Couples should not rush to fertility clinics and doctors should not intervene too fast with treatments unless there are obvious reasons for the couple not conceiving.

Infertility is defined as failure to get pregnant after a year of trying.

Many fertility clinics report couples coming in at younger ages, but the new research shows that even couples in their late 30s have a 91 percent chance of getting pregnant naturally within two years.

The study, which analyzed details of 782 couples from seven European cities, was presented Wednesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

Couples are waiting longer these days before starting families and experts have recently discovered that the age of the man matters too.

Research earlier this year suggested that fertility declines earlier than previously thought — in the late 20s for women and late 30s for men.

There is a large amount of normal variability in fertility and many couples who have below-average, but normal, fertility may fail to conceive within a year.

It may be appropriate to delay assisted reproduction until the couple has failed to conceive naturally in 18 to 24 months.

A factor that we have seen at the clinic is that following the BTD can increase a couples chance of conceiving by reducing food induced opposing antibodies in the female reproductive tract.