"Imagine a woman finds out from Plan Ahead that she is set for two years; meanwhile, her husband has a low sperm count," explains Dr. Frederick Licciardi, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University School of Medicine. "They keep trying for two years before they see a specialist and, at that point, it becomes much more difficult for the woman to become pregnant because of her age."
Normally, a woman's ability to become pregnant drops sharply after the age of 35, but problems with infertility can begin even earlier. Many of these problems come from the limited number of eggs in a woman's ovaries. At birth, a woman has about two million eggs in her ovaries, but by age 20 only 20,000 are left, which drop to 10,000 by age 40. It may sound like a lot, but most of these eggs will ultimately be reabsorbed by the ovaries by the time of menopause. Since 1 in 100 women enter menopause by the age of 40, most of these eggs will never have any potential of becoming fertilized.
Licciardi worries about the false sense of security that Plan Ahead may give to a woman or a couple. "There are so many factors that need to be taken into consideration," he says. For example, if the results of the test show that a 39-year-old woman will likely be fertile for the next two years, she may put off trying. "It's still hard to get pregnant at age 41, no matter what," says Licciardi.
Additionally, the hormones that the Plan Ahead test measures, inhibin B and AMH, have not yet been proven as an accurate measure of a woman's future fertility, Licciardi adds. Regardless, all of the tests that Plan Ahead offers can be done by a fertility specialist. And if a woman does discover that her fertile days are numbered, a fertility specialist will be better able to advise her of her options.
"This test may be able to give them an estimate," says Licciardi. "But I don't know if you can really predict these things."
