16% - Really???

I've been reading Dr. Sherman Silber's book "How To Get Pregnant" - he's a pretty famous fertility doc, and I've seen stuff about him and his clinic on the Discovery Health Channel.

In it he writes that 16% of women in their late 20's are infertile (meaning no conception within a year or more of regular unprotected sex). SIXTEEN percent. Wow. I had no idea that the percent would be that high for women my age.

He also says that the cd3 bloodwork is not really helpful to show how well your ovarian reserve is doing. It cannot predict how quickly you are headed to infertility or how many years you may have until menopause. Apparently there is a easy, non-invasive way to check your ovarian reserves though. He suggests the best way to do this is to have a transvaginal ultrasound and have the doctor count all the antral follicles on both ovaries. (Antral follicles are follicles that are 1-2mm in diameter and will possibly grow to the point that they will produce a mature follicle for ovulation. If they don't grow to that point - they just die off.) Dr. Silber says this test can be done on any day of the cycle. He believes these counts can reasonably predict how many fertile years you have left (if you do) and how long you have until menopause - the times he gives are a range of years. He also states that you can know if you should move more quickly into more agressive fertility treatment or not, based on the counts.

I really want to have my antral follies counted now. I wonder if my doc has photos of my last ovarian ultrasound performed last June.....

I would recommend this book, by the way. I'm learning lots of new things I wish I had known 5 years ago.