What exactly happens during the menopause and until when can you get pregnant?
After your thirties:less fertile
Having children at or after your thirties is very normal these days. Yet from that age you are less and less fertile. That has to do with your ovaries; they produce fewer and fewer eggs. For example, if you are 20 and have sex without contraception, you have a 20 to 25 percent chance of getting pregnant each month. When you are approaching forty, the chance is only three to six percent.
The opportunity remains
That does not mean that you no longer have to think about contraception, says Bart Fauser, professor of reproductive medicine and head of the Reproduction and Gynaecology department at UMC Utrecht. As long as your body produces eggs, even if there are fewer and fewer, there is a possibility that you will become pregnant. If you don't want that, you have to use contraception until the menopause.
What happens in the transition?
The transition, that may still sound a long way off now. But it is still good to briefly consider what exactly happens in your body. In a few years, your body will switch from a normal menstrual cycle to no periods at all. On average, this takes about three to five years and in theory you could still get pregnant during these years, although the chance is getting smaller.
When does the transition start?
It's hard to say. For some women, the menopause starts around the age of forty, for others only towards the age of sixty. On average, the transition takes place around the age of 51.
How do I know if I am in menopause?
It would of course be nice if you could determine with a test whether you are already in the menopause; then you know approximately how long you could still get pregnant. Unfortunately, the self-tests currently on the market do not provide much guidance. They look at the value of the FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) in your urine. An increased value could indicate that the menopause has started, but a negative result does not mean that it has not. These tests are therefore not very useful to see if you can stop using contraception. There will probably be other tests available within the next ten years that are a lot more reliable.
