Single Parent By Choice: Your Fertility Window Is Shorter Than You Think

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Aug 22, 2026 · 9m

Single motherhood by choice looks nothing like the stereotype, and the fertility numbers behind it are more urgent than most people think. Dr. Ashley Guttman lays out why so many Canadian families now start with one parent by design, and what that means for your fertility timeline.

The stats are blunt: at 30, you have roughly a 1 in 5 chance of conceiving in any given month. By 40, that can fall to 1 in 10, or worse. Ashley explains why the decline comes down to egg quality as much as egg count, and why that talk usually happens too late.

Then there is the price tag nobody warns you about…