Has your career been your focus throughout your life?

Has the idea of starting a family been on the back burner?

Many women are achieving tremendous success in the workplace by putting in the time and effort required to hit their career milestones. Unfortunately, investing the time to build a successful career can also mean setting other important goals aside until later in life.

If you’re ready to start a family but are past your prime reproductive years, there are still several family building methods available for you to consider like adoption or fresh and frozen donor eggs (you can learn more about donor eggs and their cost with Donor Egg Bank USA).

If you aren’t ready to start a family but are becoming concerned about your future fertility, these five tips are for you.

1. Keep your reproductive health in mind

Life gets busy juggling work, social activities, travel, and more. If starting a family isn’t a priority for you right now or you aren’t quite ready for parenthood yet, it’s common for that goal to be buried at the bottom of your list. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t wait for us to be “ready” to start a family, and we’re on a fairly strict timeline when it comes to our reproductive years.

Given this, you’ll need to regularly evaluate your personal situation and desires by asking questions like:

• How old are you?
• Are you in a relationship in which you’d be ready to have children soon?
• What do you want to accomplish before having kids, and how long do you anticipate it taking to reach that goal?
• Do you want to have children using your own eggs someday?

Discuss these with your primary care provider or gynecologist for medical insight regarding whether you should consider preserving your fertility.

2. Be evaluated by a specialist

If you don’t think you’ll be having children soon and are nearing the age of 30 or beyond, it would be wise to be evaluated by a specialist. Your gynecologist can perform an initial screening via bloodwork to get an idea of your ovarian reserve/egg count, as well as assess your hormones and anatomy which play a role in fertility. If something abnormal is discovered, he or she can recommend additional testing. Depending on your age, future fertility goals, and test results, you may be referred to a fertility specialist (reproductive endocrinologist) who can 1) offer you fertility treatment options and 2) help you ensure your body is as healthy as possible when you’re ready to become pregnant.

3. Egg donation

If you’ve finally achieved your career goals and are ready to start a family later in life, you may be discouraged because you’re at an age where it’s hard to conceive due to diminished egg reserve and are concerned about the quality of your eggs.

Fortunately, your body can carry a healthy pregnancy long after your egg reserve diminishes.

While your body is very capable of being pregnant, you’ll need help with the genetic material necessary to create an embryo. Thankfully, women across the world have donated their eggs to help others have healthy pregnancies and babies. You’ll have the option of selecting frozen donor eggs or pursuing a fresh donor egg cycle.

With either option, you’ll be able to choose your donor based on whatever qualifications fit your needs and desires. Further, you’ll be able to work closely with a fertility specialist who can walk you through the process of achieving pregnancy with donor eggs. When you’re pursuing donor eggs as your fertility treatment option, it’s important to be aware that a national or international frozen egg donor database features a significantly more diverse selection of donors when compared to fresh donor egg databases, which are often limited to egg donors within your local area.

4. Accommodating a busy schedule

Be prepared for frequent appointments if you’re undergoing fertility treatments like IVF or a fresh donor egg cycle. Conversely, a benefit of undergoing treatment using frozen donor eggs is that it can be completed within 4 weeks from beginning to end, which may be your best option if you’re under a tight time constraint. Regardless of your preferred treatment, the payoff is often worth it!

Here are a few helpful tips to ensure scheduling your treatment goes smoothly:

• Schedule appointments first thing in the morning or late in the day to miss as little work as possible.
• Bring your laptop so you can work while you wait. Most offices offer free WiFi.
• Depending on your doctor and treatment schedule, you might have the option of scheduling weekend appointments.
• Depending on your profession, schedule flexibility, and comfort level with your manager, it might be best to be open and honest with him/her about your treatment journey, so they understand why you’re out of office regularly or on short notice for appointments.

Whether you’re ready to start your family or still need more time to climb the corporate ladder, rest assured you can build the family of your dreams on your own timeline.