Abstract

  The purpose of this mini-review is to provide the latest information on reproductive health, and how the increasing incidence of advanced maternal age is impacting conception and pregnancy planning. Reproductive health education in the primary care setting is usually geared towards contraception but it is also necessary to counsel young women about their fertility health. A literature search using PUBMED was conducted and articles that studied fertility preservation and advanced maternal age were selected for review.

Introduction: Many women today are choosing to delay childbearing for various reasons.
  Unfortunately, many women are also unaware that they might encounter fertility problems when they are finally ready to start a family. This knowledge gap needs to be closed by primary care providers who are at that forefront of guiding their patients on preventative health issues and should also include a dialogue on reproductive health. The primary care providers need to educate young women not only on sexual health, sexually transmitted infection prevention, cancer prevention and contraception but also discuss fertility health, the risks associated with advanced maternal age and discuss current fertility options available such as oocyte or ovarian tissue cryopreservation.

Background: The incidence of advanced maternal age, defined as a woman aged 35 or older before her first conception, is increasing as women are electing to go further in their education, become entrepreneurs, travel the world or climb the corporate ladder. What this implies is that women are marrying later and delaying childbearing. In many cases, the woman may be in her 30s before she has the first discussion with her physician about fertility. By 35, her fertility has already started to decline and by age 40, the chances for a healthy woman to get pregnant naturally is only 5% per cycle.
   Many women are unaware of the statistics that are working against them. Pregnancies that occur in older women increase the risk of maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes.
   Primary care providers can help their patients by educating them at a younger age so that they can understand the reproductive changes that occur with aging and how it might impact their fertility.

Aim: Primary care providers can help their female patients understand their fertility health at an earlier age so that women can make informed decisions about childbearing and make plans for the most optimal outcomes when they are ready to start a family.

Conclusion: Initiating early fertility counseling in female patients in their 20s can help women make informed decisions about future reproductive options.

Keywords: Fertility; Pregnancy; Advanced Maternal Age; Embryo Donor; In Vitro Fertilization; Oocyte Cryopreservation; Social Egg Freezing; Primary Care Provider

References

1. Laopaiboon M., et al. “Advanced Maternal Age and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Multicountry Assessment”. BJOG 121 (2014): 49-56. 
2. Dolmans MM and Manavella DD. “Recent advances in fertility preservation”. The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research 45.2 (2019): 266-279.
3. Fisch B and Abir R. “Female fertility preservation: past, present and future”. Reproduction 156 (2018): F11-F27.
4. Danis RB., et al. “Random Start Ovarian Stimulation for Oocyte or Embryo Cryopreservation in Women Desiring Fertility Preservation Prior to Gonadotoxic Cancer Therapy”. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 18 (2017): 609-613.
5. Martinez F. “Update on fertility preservation from the Barcelona International Society for Fertility Preservation-ESHRE-ASRM 2015 expert meeting: indications, results and future perspectives”. Fertility and Sterility 108 (2017): 407-415.e11.
6. Bénard J., et al. “Fertility preservation in women of the childbearing age: Indications and strategies”. The Journal de Gynécologie Obstétrique et Biologie de la Reproduction 45 (2016): 424-444.

Citation

Citation: Moji Ariyo. “The Role of Primary Care Providers in Counseling Younger Childbearing Aged Women about their Fertility Health”. Acta Scientific Women's Health 2.1 (2020): 37-39.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Moji Ariyo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.