A Medical Director of the Upper East Regional Hospital and member of the Fertility Society of Ghana, Dr Aiden Saanwie, has revealed that age-related infertility among women is on the rise as the number of fertile women above 30 years continues to drop dramatically.
Speaking on fertility on Bolgatanga-based Dreamz FM recently, Dr Saanwie noted that age is the major cause of growing infertility among men and women given that the older one gets, the less likely they will be able to have children.
For women, he stated that the fertility rate among women above 30 years was reducing. The decline starts at 32 and worsens at 37, he explained.
“Generally, it’s been noted that age, as a factor on its own, is a cause of fertility decline. From 32 years, fertility declines globally. Then when you get to 37, there is a sharp decline and by 50 (there is a plus or minus 5) most people will be menopausal within that period. And obviously, they would have lost their fertility at that stage. So you don’t want to get there without meeting your fertility age,” he said.
“Reproductive age should start from 18 but we know that much earlier people can give birth but looking at the age that we want to encourage people to have safe responsible sex, we also tie it to 18 years because legally, it’s allowed. So 18-35 years is good,” he added.
Ghana’s fertility rate has been declining over the years as global fertility rates plummet. The drastic reduction hurts development, according to pronatalism development experts.