Now, you may have to know me to know that I am making this comment tongue-in-cheek. I love Canadians, and we have many working at RSC—so many in fact they sometimes gang up on the rest of us as they sing the praises of their country. That being said, there was a recent article in Fertility and Sterility (May 2010), our reproductive journal, that looked at Canadian university women’s responses to a series of questions that are basic to preventing infertility. The results from the survey showed that the average university Canadian woman had little knowledge of how quickly fertility declines, what the main causes for miscarriages are, and in general , how hard it is to get pregnant as one nears 40 years of age. They completely overestimated the ability of a 40 year old to conceive and deliver a healthy baby.
Take the challenge and see how you compare:
1. Which of the following is the strongest risk factor for infertility?
a.The woman’s age
b.Physical or emotional stress
c.Exposure to cigarette smoke
d.Long term use of the birth control
2. Which of the following scenarios most accurately describes a woman’s fertility over her lifetime?
a.Fertility significantly drops off more than a decade prior to menopause
b.Fertility stays about the same from the onset of menstruation until menopause
c.Fertility stays about the same from the onset of menstruation until menopause
d.Women remain fertile even several years after menopause
3. Which is the strongest risk factor for miscarriage?
a.Physical or emotional stress
b.The woman’s age
c.Exposure to cigarette smoke
d.Strenuous exercise during pregnancy
4. A 40-year-old woman undergoing in vitro fertilization has the best chance of becoming pregnant when using:
a.In vitro fertilization success does not depend on origin of eggs
b.Her own eggs
c.Eggs donated by a 20-year-old donor
d.Eggs donated by a close female relative
5. What is the chance (%) that after 1 month of regular unprotected sex…
a.20-year-old woman will become pregnant?
b.30-year-old woman will become pregnant?
c.40-year-old woman will become pregnant?
6. How many months of regular unprotected sex does it take for the average
a.20-year-old woman to become pregnant?
b.30-year-old woman to become pregnant?
c.40-year-old woman to become pregnant?
7. How likely is it (%) that a pregnant:
a.20-year-old woman will have a miscarriage?
b.30-year-old woman will have a miscarriage?
4c.0-year-old woman will have a miscarriage?
8. What percentage of all couple attempting to have children experience infertility?
9. What percentage of couples, in which the woman is over the age of 40, will experience infertility?
I have a feeling that US women may answer the questions very similar to our Canadian counterparts. Why? Because our culture dramatically affects our medical knowledge. Sex Ed in high school added little to our knowledge of fertility. Instead, TV, gossip magazines, and our friends influence what we know. Just because a 45 year old movie star is on the cover of Star magazine, does not mean she conceived without help or even used her own eggs to conceive. That is why seeing an infertility specialist may be your best move.
Answers (ranges represent the results of different studies):
1. a.
2. a.
3. b.
4. c.
5.25%, 21-23%, 5-8%
6. 5 mo, 6 mo, 7-12 mo
7. 9-10%, 11-12%, 29-34%
8. 10—20%
9. 70-90%
If you scored well, that is possibly because you have infertility and have been educated about the real odds. Hopefully, with smart folks like you around, and national campaigns to educate couples, we will cure and prevent infertility in the future.
Dr. Mary Hinckley is a leading Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialist at the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area. She has extensively published articles in peer-reviewed journals on blastocyst transfer, avoiding triplet pregnancies, monozygotic twinning, operative hysteroscopy, correction of uterine anomalies, and biochemical pathways involved in ovulation and fertilization. She serves as a member of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinologists, the Christian Medical and Dental Society and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Her areas of interest include laparoscopic surgery, premature ovarian failure, oocyte freezing, and recurrent pregnancy loss.
