Doctors Warn Not to Put Off Parenthood
About 10% of the nation’s reproductive-age men and women--nearly 6.2 million Americans--suffer from infertility, and relatively few are able to give birth with the help of in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination.
But a perception has taken hold among young women that they can easily put off having children until their late 30s and into their 40s because medical technology will be there to help them. That sense has been fed by news of celebrity moms, such as actress Jane Seymour, who had twins at 44, and playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who gave birth for the first time at 48.
The reality, however, is that fertility decreases each year after age 30, while the risk of birth defects rises. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that not only does the quality of a woman’s eggs decline with age, but so does the quality of a man’s sperm.
To address the gap between perception and reality, the 8,500-member American Society of Reproductive Medicine recently announced it was launching a public information campaign focusing on the preventable aspects of infertility.
A key campaign message, aimed at women and men in their 20s and 30s, will proclaim on billboards and in radio ads: “Advancing Age Decreases Your Ability to Have Children.” But it has fueled an unexpected backlash from a top feminist organization.
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said the message unduly pressures young women by scaring them into thinking they must have their children early.
“Being unable to have kids when you want badly to have a family is tragic,” Gandy said. “But we don’t need to see a ticking clock every time we pass a bus.”
Deciding when to have children is a complicated decision into which several factors play.
“It’s everything from your own readiness from an economic and psychological point of view to your relationship status,” said Gandy, whose organization has championed women’s equality in the workplace and other realms formerly dominated by men.
“We don’t want to give the message to young women that if 28 is good, then 23 must be better and 18 must be better still,” said Gandy, an attorney who had her children at 39 and 41. “I don’t think the younger-is-better message is the right message to be sending.”
But the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the nation’s largest fertility group, said its doctors and biologists felt duty-bound to inform women about what can go wrong if they wait too long before trying to conceive.
Gandy said discussions about age and fertility are important but that they belong in the OB-GYN’s office. She agreed with the society that discussion of childbearing plans and desires should be a routine part of every woman’s annual visit to the OB-GYN, along with questions about domestic violence and sexual assault.
She had no objection to other campaign messages that draw attention to how smoking, sexually transmitted diseases and being overweight or underweight can impair fertility.
“Certainly the information they’re giving about smoking and sexually transmitted diseases is important information and perhaps a billboard is an appropriate way to convey that kind of easily discernible risk,” Gandy said.
The nonprofit society will begin displaying public service advertisements on buses in New York City, suburban Chicago and Seattle in September in advance of National Infertility Week, Oct. 7-13. Radio announcements will run in the nation’s top markets, and the society is offering brochures and other material through a new Web site, https://www.protectyourfertility.org, or through a toll-free number, (866) 228-6906.
