We often treat fertility as a binary thing - fertile or infertile. However, that’s just not accurate. When we simplify fertility into this binary equation, we miss important nuances. Many women tell me - “I just want to know whether I’m able to get pregnant”. They worry that they’ve somehow fallen into the “not capable of getting pregnant” bucket. However, there is only an infinitesimally small number of women for whom this is the case (as I mentioned in the book, approximately 1% of women are sterile, meaning physiologically incapable of conceiving). The answer for most women is that they can get pregnant - it’s just a matter of figuring out what could potentially stand in the way of that happening.
Like health, fertility runs across a spectrum. At the low end, there is subfertility; subfertility essentially means difficulty conceiving (because of certain factors that are dampening our natural fertility). When someone is subfertile, it indicates that conception is possible, but may take longer than average. We think that infertility = sterility but, in reality, infertility = subfertility and no one seems to be acknowledging that. Infertility just means that you have tried to conceive for a certain amount of time (12 mos if you are < 35 years old, 6 mos if you are > 35 years old) and it didn’t happen. It does not say anything about your capacity to conceive.
At the high end of the fertility spectrum, there is robust fertility. We often think of someone who is young and vibrant; that is often true, but as you know by now, fertility is not only driven by age. Robust fertility is also driven by lifestyle.
If you are interested in conceiving, it can be helpful to figure out where you are on the fertility spectrum. Pre–pregnancy wellness testing is one of those ways. Evaluating your cycles is another indicator. Regardless, it’s important to remember that fertility exists on a continuum and you have the power to shift where you fall on that continuum if you aren’t satisfied with the current status.