# At What Age Do Women Have Their Peak Fertility?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546 "2002-04-19T16:53:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546/1 "2002-04-19T16:53:16Z")

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At what age is a woman’s fertilility at its peak, on average? In other words, what is nature’s optimal breeding age for women?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Merlot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@Merlot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merlot)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546/2 "2002-04-19T17:18:50Z")

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IIRC, at age 27 a woman’s fertility starts to decline.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546/3 "2002-04-19T17:20:11Z")

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I just read somewhere (where? I cannot recall, but it was in the last week) that women’s fertility on average peaks at age 27 and then goes into decline. By 40 it was only something like 10% of what it was at 27.

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**Author:** ![Merlot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@Merlot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merlot)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546/4 "2002-04-19T17:24:26Z")

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Hari,

Was it the cover story in Time magazine two or three weeks ago? I believe that is where I learned that bit of information.

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**Author:** ![ejrn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a6a055/32.png) [@ejrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ejrn)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-do-women-have-their-peak-fertility/104546/5 "2002-04-19T18:09:19Z")

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I found out the hard way that there is one more brief peak shortly before menopause. Apparantly, when the ovaries start to slow down estrogen production, the pituitary starts churning out FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) in an attempt to kickstart the ovaries again. This causes more eggs to be produced and explains the higher rate of natural twins in women over forty. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.