Limits to Fertility Postponement in the Context of Reproductive Ageing: Results from Polish GGS Survey

Krzysztof Tymicki, Warsaw School of Economics

Paper addresses an issue whether increase in age at first attempt to conceive among females might have an effect on likelihood of conception. Since postponement of reproduction seems to be almost universal feature of contemporary developed societies paper aims at measuring safe limits of postponement in which conception will not be endangered by a significant drop in fecundity. Analysis uses data on waiting time to pregnancy (WtP) to measure an impact of reproductive ageing on length of interval between first attempt to conceive and conception. Methodology of measuring WtP has been implemented in Polish GGS survey. Analyses reveal significant increase in WtP among women aged 35+, slight increase among females aged 30-35 and no decrease for younger females. Results suggest that postponement of reproduction beyond age 35 might decrease chances for achieving desired number of children during lifetime and ultimately increase observed proportion of childless females.