Now that GMA Health Alert about fertility, the CDC revealing it's at an all-time low, and a new survey exclusively to GMA may help shed light on some of the reasons why. Our senior medical contributor, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, is here with more on this. So an all-time low, age is a major factor, what is it revealing?
So this was a survey done by Healthline called the State of Fertility, and basically wanted to look at awareness, beliefs, attitudes about fertility, mostly among millennials. This following a CDC report showing that for women under the age of 30, the fertility rate is going down. For women over 30 in their 30s and 40s, it's going up.
And, you know, really the findings of the survey say that the attitudes and just overall educational level of people about where their fertility is and where it can be in the future, especially that the magic age of 35 for a woman is like a line in the sand, not so good. Other reasons for the decline, do you think? It's a complex issue. I think there are medical reasons, there are social reasons, there are financial reasons. According to the survey, the top two reasons for delaying parenthood amongst millennials, financial security, it costs a lot of money, and career aspirations.
I mean, these are very much front and foremost on the mind of millennials. I think that's what people were thinking was part of the reason why. Okay, so... Explain what's going on in the woman's body. All right, so fun fertility facts here.
We're going to demonstrate with these ping pong balls. I would very much like to show eggs, but it's morning TV. So if you look at this ball, this represents the number of eggs that a female fetus has in utero.
She has about 6 to 7 million eggs when she's still in utero. At the time of birth, that number drops to about 1 million eggs. When she hits puberty, these are 11, 12, 13-year-old girls, she's left with about 300,000 eggs. and over the course of her reproductive lifetime, she only releases about 300. When she gets to her 30s, 30s and 40s it's not just the number but the quality represented by these black ping-pong balls so again it only takes one egg to make a baby but it is very clear your peak fertility is in your late teens and early 20s and from there it drops quite dramatic when you see it yeah the numbers are really are dramatic all right a lot of women here a lot of women watching they're saying okay if we're over 35 under 35 what's this is I think the take-home message and I'm excited about this for the future of women's health I think this is a discussion that women should be having with their health care provider, their OBGYN, in their 20s about their reproductive health options, their awareness, their education. Not everyone chooses to be a parent, which is totally fine, but you want to know the facts and what is on your horizon.
So I think for women that is key and that dialogue should start immediately, sooner rather than later. because that is only going to be helpful. And we have to remember, it's not just women.
Recent studies about male fertility, their rates globally are dropping, and so it takes two. This is a very important awareness. It certainly does take two.