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The end of fertility: age, fecundity and fecundability in women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Odile Frank ,
P. Grace Bianchi  and
Aldo Campana
Odile Frank
Affiliation:
World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
P. Grace Bianchi
Affiliation:
Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire de Genève, Switzerland
Aldo Campana
Affiliation:
Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire de Genève, Switzerland
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Summary

Onset of capacity for childbearing in women is dated biologically by menarche, although actual onset may be delayed. The end of childbearing is less understood but recent demographic and biological research on fertility at older ages is clarifying the end of fertility.

The demographic view of declining fertility with age is based on age-specific fertility in natural fertility populations, artificial insemination and pregnancy rates by age and World Fertility Survey data. New data from the Demographic and Health Surveys on exposure to the risk of pregnancy shows that whereas older women biologically need longer exposure to pregnancy, exposure declines on behavioural grounds such as duration of marriage. Actual fecundity is obscured by factors of fecundability. Recent research on medically assisted conception is adding to the understanding of declining fecundity with age, especially the relative contributions of endometrial and ovarian ageing.

This paper reviews the available information on declining fertility with age and discusses the implications of the extension of fertility through new medical technologies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , July 1994 , pp. 349 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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