For women who want to have kids, knowing when is the right time to do it isn’t always easy. Some put it off until later so they can finish school, travel, or focus on their careers first, and don’t end up trying to conceive until their late 20s or well into their 30s. It’s a personal choice and there’s no wrong answer for when you’re ready to be a mom, but fertility expert Dr. Gillian Lockwood says there IS an ideal age for women’s bodies to get pregnant …and it’s a little younger than we expected.
It turns out, our bodies are best suited to get pregnant at 25. So just about the time you can rent a car legally, is the ideal age to start making babies. Lockwood says she understands that at that age, motherhood is still a low priority for most women, and she also has some harsh words about fertility treatments being marketed as a realistic option for women over 40.
“The bleak reality is that the chance of IVF working with your own eggs once you are 40 is absolutely abysmal,” Lockwood explains. “In what other branch of medicine would we let, yet alone encourage, patients to pay for an elective operation with a less than five percent chance of working?”
But plenty of wannabe parents are still happy to take those chances. And whether you have kids at 20 or 40, biologically or via adoption or a surrogate, only you know what’s right for you when and IF you’re ready to be a mom.