Menopause & Fertility

Menopause marks the end of a woman's fertile years. A woman is considered to be "in" menopause when she has gone 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period. Even though menopause is a natural process, many women find it depressing and frightening to reach the end of their reproductive years. However, many women do not know that until they are actually in menopause, they still retain a small chance of getting pregnant.

Why Does Menopause End Fertility?

• Women are born with a fixed number of eggs in their ovaries. During the childbearing years, their bodies mature and ovulate one egg per month (usually), thanks to hormones called estrogen and progesterone. However, as women age, the number of potentially viable eggs in their ovaries rapidly dwindles, and the ovaries gradually stop producing estrogen and progesterone. As a result, they begin to ovulate less and less, and when they do ovulate, the eggs are of increasingly poor quality. Once a woman is menopausal, it means she has no viable eggs left in her ovaries -- and even if she did, she could no longer ovulate because her hormone levels have become too low. Pregnancy therefore becomes an impossibility.

When Does Menopause Begin?

• Menopause occurs for most women between the ages of 47 and 55. But for a small percentage of women, menopause occurs much earlier --before the age of 40. This is called premature menopause. There are also some women who go through menopause only slightly earlier than normal: between the ages of 40 and 45. This is called "early-onset" menopause. Women who suffer from premature or early onset menopause are often shocked and devastated to find out that their reproductive years are coming to an end, particularly if they have not yet started a family.

Symptoms

• The signs of menopause can include hot flashes, night sweats, changes to the monthly menstrual cycle (particularly a shortening of the cycle), headaches, joint pain and body aches, vaginal dryness or fatigue. Other symptoms may include bloating, an increased number of yeast infections and loss of libido.

Pregnancy

• There is a small chance that you can get pregnant when experiencing the symptoms of menopause, if you have not actually entered menopause. Often women experience these symptoms during "perimenopause": the transitional period between the childbearing years and menopause. During perimenopause you are still ovulating, and thus pregnancy is possible. However, because egg quality has decreased, if you do get pregnant, the chance of having a viable pregnancy is around 50%. According to Mayo Clinic.com, perimenopause can last between 2-8 years, plus one year after your last menstrual period.

Other Options

• It is impossible for a woman to get pregnant naturally with her own eggs once she has entered menopause. However, if a menopausal woman has frozen eggs or embryos from an earlier period of her life, she might be able to get pregnant through in-vitro fertilization. If she does not have any frozen eggs or embryos, she must use donor eggs if she wants to get pregnant.