Q:

Hello,
This may be a stupid question, but I’ve been worrying about it so I’m going to ask anyway! I’m 21 years old. I have always known that I want to be a mom, and I can’t wait to be pregnant and have children. I know I’m young right now, and I want to be happily married, have graduated from WWU, finished grad school and have a stable life in place before I have kids. I’m not trying (nor do I want to be) pregnant right now. I’ve always had this ‘feeling’ that I won’t be able to get pregnant. I have no reason for this, or proof to back it up, but I have a very strong feeling that I won’t get pregnant when the time comes. I was wondering if it’s possible that I’m actually sensing something that is an issue or not. It’s entirely possible (and probably quite likely!) that I’m just being paranoid and worrying about something for no reason at all, but I wanted to ask.
Cheers

 

A:

This is always one of the big unknowns in life--whether your hopes and dreams will be realized or not. It is very likely you will be able to get pregnant (over 85% of women sexually active without contraception over the course of a year do get pregnant), but there are some women who have hormonal issues that prevent conception, or scarred fallopian tubes, or who are partnered with infertile or subfertile men. Of course fertility does drop sometime after age 35, although normal pregnancies can occur until the mid-forties.

It isn't worth your worry now, as long as you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle, keeping your weight under control, minimizing alcohol and using no recreational drugs, keeping your folate high in your diet, or using folate supplements.

~The Doc