LONDON, September 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Several British fertility specialists, writing in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, warn that the increasing trend of women delaying having children until later in life is leading to disappointment because of an inability to have children.
“Obstetricians and gynaecologists have seen dramatic changes in two decades alongside this demographic transformation and are witnesses to the resultant tragedies,” the London-based doctors stated. The specialists added that, as a woman gets older, the potential for problem pregnancies also increases. “The pain of infertility; miscarriage; smaller families than desired; or damage to pregnancy, mothers, and children is very private, particularly when women blame themselves for choices made without being fully aware of the consequences.”
The average age for women to have a child has risen from 26 to 29 in the last 20 years, the obstetricians, led by Dr Susan Bewley, a high-risk pregnancy specialist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, stated. The ideal age for childrearing remains 20 to 35, the doctors said. “It is ironic that as society becomes more risk averse and pregnant women more anxious than in the past, a major preventable cause of this ill health and unhappiness is unacknowledged,” they stated. “Public health agencies target teenagers but ignore the epidemic of pregnancy in middle age.”
“Paradoxically, the availability of IVF may lull women into infertility while they wait for a suitable partner and concentrate on their careers and achieving security and a comfortable living standard,” Dr. Bewley and her colleagues warned. They explained that IVF treatments have a poor record of success. “This expensive, invasive treatment has high failure rates (more than 70% of women undergoing a cycle of IVF do not achieve a live birth—more than 90% when older than 40).”
“Women want to ‘have it all,’ but biology is unchanged; deferring defies nature and risks heartbreak,” the obstetricians emphasized. “If women want room for manoeuvre they are unwise to wait till their 30s.”
The doctors advised that incentives be brought in to help women make the decision to start a family at a younger age. “The reasons for these difficulties lie not with women but with a distorted and uninformed view from society, employers, and health planners,” they explained.
Read the BMJ report, “Which Career First?” at:
https://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7517/588?ehom
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