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You have the universal blood type.

First off: There’s no big red flag here. Forty-four percent of us have type O blood, and most have no trouble conceiving. But a study at Yale University School of Medicine got our attention when it found that, among female fertility patients in their 30s, those with type O were twice as likely as other blood types to have a hormone profile that made their ovaries seem older than their age. As a group, their FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) levels more often passed a threshold (>10 mIU/ml) that suggests a lower egg reserve.

The lesson: “Blood type serves only as an alert–it’s not a risk factor,” stresses Lubna Pal, MD, the study’s senior author and a researcher in reproductive endocrinology, who doesn’t want healthy women to worry needlessly. For those with type O who have been struggling to conceive, she says, the best thing to do with this information is to weigh it with other factors known to reduce fertility. For instance, if you also smoke or your mother reached menopause at an early age, this finding might prompt you to adopt a healthier lifestyle and to talk to your doctor sooner than you might otherwise. Lastly, don’t panic: Elevated FSH doesn’t prevent you from getting pregnant. (Only levels higher than 20 mIU/ml are considered an indicator of infertility.)

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