By Shola Ogundipe
Kudirat was marking her 36th birthday when Sekinat, her non-identical twin sister, challenged her to endeavour to make her dream of motherhood a reality.

Seki, as the latter was fondly called, had just given birth to her second baby girl within four years of marriage to Gbenro, her heartthrob of many years. Things couldn’t have worked out better for the couple. However, it was a different story altogether for Kudi and her spouse —Jaiye.

The luck factor

Tried as much as they could, the latter couple had a lot less luck than the former in experiencing the joy of parenthood. While Seki maintained both of her pregnancies and births of her babies with ease,Kudi had not been as fortunate. Along with her husband —Jaiye who she describes as her “soul mate” they had tried all they could to achieve the elusive conception without luck. Many tests revealed just one thing — she had a problem with her uterus and Jaiye had a problem with sperm production.

Wait, was all they heard from the healthcare providers. There was not much to be done for either of them, except wait, they were told. Every doctor said the same thing—“be patient” or “keep trying”. But Kudi was getting fed up waiting, she was tired being patient, but was not done trying.

Waiting game

She and Seki had been taken to the altar to tie the nuptial knot at about the same time. But while Seki got pregnant almost immediately,Kudi remained perpetually on the “waiting list” as she often put it.

Aware that her fertility was declining, she was getting desperate and knowledge that her twin sister was already a mother twice over didn’t help make her feel one bit better.

Over and over, she ruminated over Seki’s suggestion that she (Kudi) should try IVF. Seki had even sent her a few addresses and contacts of fertility specialists. “After my sister asked me what I was going to do about having children, I felt I should make an informed choice.

Could I or could I not have a baby? I needed to find out,” Kudi remarked to whoever cared to listen.

History

Given her age and medical history (she’d had treatment for endometriosis), her doctor had urged her that IVF using donated sperm

would give her the best chance of success. Prior to this, she had never heard about egg donation.

“I decided to have treatment not with a ‘known donor’, but my very own Jaiye, not least because I was concerned about my child not knowing its real father.

This meant a frustrating six month-wait before treatment could begin,while Jaiye’s sperm was screened treated through a method called Intracytosplasmic Morphorlogical Sperm Injection , IMSI.

Eggs & embryos

“When my eggs were collected, there were only two, but they were the best quality and, unbelievably, both fertilised and were put back in.

Sadly, the cycle was unsuccessful. Jaiye and I decided we would have three attempts before giving up. The second time Kudi’s embryos were

replaced just before her 40th birthday party – Kudi knew what to wish for when she blew out the candles on her cake.

Pregnancy

A week later, she bought a pregnancy test and it was positive. The couple was stunned. The scans were performed and all came back the same – normal. Kudi went on to have a completely healthy pregnancy.

Just last month, she gave birth to her son – Isaac.

Maybe you’ve been trying to get pregnant for years, or, perhaps,you’ve just begun. You might have already gone through a battery of fertility tests, or maybe you’re still debating whether to see a doctor or not. Whatever description fits your situation best, you’reprobably looking for the same thing– how to get pregnant.

The first step is to understand your body. When you understand your body, you may feel more in control and make better choices about your reproductive health.

Learn what you need to know about getting pregnant, from how getting pregnant works, to how to time sex for ovulation. Understanding the reproductive system will also help you understand fertility testing and treatments better. Get the basics on reproduction and how to get pregnant.

According to medical experts, the more you know about ovulation, the

better able you’ll understand how to time sex for pregnancy and make the best use of fertility drug cycles. It is fact that problems with ovulation are the cause for infertility in about 30 percent of women,so it pays to learn everything you need to know about ovulation.

Fertility and Age

Age matters when you’re trying to get pregnant. It is important to know that age isn’t just a factor for female fertility, but also male fertility. Of course, it is not everyone who has trouble getting

pregnant after age 35. You may know of families who got pregnant quickly in their late 30s, or even early 40s. However, statistically speaking, your chances of getting pregnant after age 35 are lower.

Fertility peaks in most women in the 20s, and gradually begins to decline in the late 20s. At around age 35, fertility starts to decline at a much more rapid pace. For example, in any given month, your chances of getting pregnant at age 30 are about 20 percent. At age 40, your chance of getting pregnant in any given month is just 5 percent.

Why fertility declines

Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. While born with over a million eggs, by puberty just 300,000 are left. From this number of eggs, only 300 will ever become mature and be released in the process known as ovulation.

Long before menopause, the bodies’ reproductive capabilities slow down, becoming less effective at producing mature, healthy eggs. With age, and impending menopause, the ovaries respond less well to the hormones responsible for helping the eggs ovulate. This natural decline of fertility happens in the healthiest of women, though bad health habits, like smoking, have been shown to speed up the decline of fertility.

Age also increases the chances of genetic problems. This is the reason for the increased risk in babies in women over age 35. At age 25, 1 in 1,250 women will give birth to a child with Down Syndrome. At age 30, it’s a 1 in 952 risk, and by age 35, the chance is 1 in 378.