Millenials Overconfident About Waiting to Have Children in Their 30s

A new study from Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey released this week National Infertility Awareness Week found that millennials are a little too cocky about waiting until their careers are established and they are in their thirties in order to have a child.

Ninety-five percent of respondents who think they will try to get pregnant in the next five years think they will have no problem. However, the study asserts that even if a 30-year-old woman is healthy and fertile, she has only a 20% chance of conceiving naturally each month.

In 1970, the average age of a mother with her first birth was 21.4; in 2006 it was 25.

The study also found that young people are laboring under the misconception that in vitro fertilization (IVF) requires more than one embryo in order to be successful, which used to be the case but no longer is the truth. Eighty-seven percent of respondents are ignorant of the change. Ninety-four percent of those trying to get pregnant still subscribe to the old idea; 90% of those thinking of trying to have a child in the next five years also believe it.

The problem with so many people believing that multiple embryos are necessary is that twin births nearly doubled over the last 30 years, from one out of 53 in 1980 to one out of 30 in 2009. The incidence of high-risk pregnancies radically increased.

Today, using Comprehensive Chromosome Screening (CCS) and Single Embryo Transfer (SET), it is not necessary to use multiple embryos to achieve conception, thus preventing the risk factor from multiple deliveries.

The survey’s data showed 55% of those who have suffered from infertility believe it is more stressful than unemployment, and 61% of them though divorce was less stressful.