What is the perfect age to have children? 2026

In today's society, many couples delay starting a family. The factors are many: lack of job and economic stability, problems with reconciling work and personal life, wanting more time to travel and enjoy as a couple... While doctors remind us that fertility, especially female fertility, decreases year after year, other people argue that having children in their thirties is better for their education, since parents are more mature and have clearer ideas.

The Telegraph newspaper has made a compilation of studies and advice from experts on the convenience of having children at every age, between 19 and 40 years old.

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19 years

According to a study by the University of Texas, this would be the optimal age to have a baby, since the reproductive system is at its peak fertility.

20 years

According to gynecologist Tony Falconer, notions about motherhood and parenting should be included in sexual education classes at this age, as the ideal period for having children begins.

23 years

A recent study conducted at the University Medical Center in Utrecht has created a “Fertility Calculator” to advise women on the ideal time to start starting a family. According to its creators, if you want to have three children, 23 years old is the perfect age to start.

25 years

According to a survey carried out in the US in 2013, for North American women this would be the perfect age to start forming a family. Men, on the other hand, thought that 27 is the ideal time.

26 years

According to the British, this is the appropriate age to start having children. Psychologist Claire Halsey proposes turning around the perception that you have to work hard and dedicate yourself to hobbies before starting a family: “maybe you can start a family first and focus on your professional career later,” explains the specialist.

27 years

The perfect age to have a baby if you want to have two children, according to the recent Dutch study.

28 years

An age at which the biological clock begins to give us warnings, as demonstrated by several researchers from the US and Italy. Their study was the first to demonstrate a drop in female fertility before age 30.

29 years

Gynecologist and professor Geeta Nargund states that it is necessary to try to have a baby at the latest at this age to avoid putting our biological clock to the limit. “If a woman wants to have children, she must do so before the age of 30. As the woman gets older, fertility plummets,” explains the expert.

30 years

It is the limit age to have children, according to a study by the University of Edinburgh in which it was found that at this time a woman retains 12% of her ovarian reserve.

31 years

An interesting fact, although not directly related to fertility, is that at this age women reach their peak of “sexual self-esteem”, according to a survey conducted by singles247.com of 2,000 women between 18 and 60 years old. Taking advantage of this trust to seek a pregnancy is each person's decision...

32 years

Top age to conceive if you want to have only one child, according to the Dutch study.

34 years

According to a study by the National Institute of Aging and Mental Health in the United Kingdom, this is the optimal age to have a baby, since women are more prepared to face the education of their children. “Studies suggest that premature motherhood interferes with the level of training and predisposes women to single parenthood, unemployment and poverty,” explains Professor John Mirowsky, director of the aforementioned work.

35 years

If you want to start a family later, this is the deadline to freeze your eggs, according to a study carried out by the Quirón-Dexeus University Hospital in Barcelona. Doctors also warn that if you want to have children, you should not postpone it much beyond this date.

37 years

Other works talk about 37 as the maximum age to get pregnant.

39 years

In 2013, Professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego, stated that it is as easy to get pregnant at 39 as it is at 20. The psychologist, who had her three children after the age of 35, stated that the “baby-panic” is based on very questionable data.

40 years

It is generally accepted that female fertility has been halved and that we only retain 3% of our ovarian reserve, according to work from the University of Edinburgh, although in 2014 the UK Office for National Statistics showed that pregnancy rates in women over 40 have doubled in recent years, likely due to advances in assisted reproduction methods. In Spain, this figure has tripled since 2000, and 33% of births occur in women over 35.

On the other hand, Adam Balen of the British Fertility Society recently accused celebrities of giving women a false impression of motherhood by having children at 40.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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