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Trying to Get Pregnant and Over 40

Hi I'm a 42-year-old women with a 24-year-old man. I would like to have a baby.

I have 3 kids already form a previous relationship. I've been told after having my IUD removed this year I can still have kids. We've been trying for the last 7 months without any success. I think he has a low sperm count. I test every month to see when I'm ovlating and still have not been lucky.

What can we do to get his sperm up to a level so we can conceive. My insurance does not cover this and we have been told it's a 150 dollars a visit and we need at least a couple of visits. What can we do to conceive? He say's he only gotten 1 other person pregnant which resulted in a miscarriage.

Lost and would like to conceive before it's too late.

ANSWER

Statistically, it's much more likely that you have old eggs than that he has a low sperm count, especially since he has impregnated someone else.

There are tests that you can have done to find out whether your hormone levels suggest that your fertility might not be what it used to be. And as you say, it is also relatively inexpensive (much cheaper than raising a child!) to find out what his sperm count is. Remember that he needs to refrain from any type of sexual activity that results in ejaculation for three days before the sperm test.

I'm assuming that you and the man have married and established a stable household, in which case you probably should both be tested if you are serious about becoming parents and raising a child together.
~Cynthia

Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.