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BuzzJack Music Forum _ News and Politics _ Women urged to try for a family earlier
Posted by: Common Sense 31st May 2015, 06:17 PM
From Daily Mail. Also on Sky News tonight.
One of Britain’s top NHS fertility specialists last night issued a stark warning to women: Start trying for a baby before you’re 30 – or risk never having children.
In a strongly worded letter to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, consultant gynaecologist Professor Geeta Nargund has also demanded that teenagers are taught about the dangers of delaying parenthood, because of the spiralling cost to the taxpayer of IVF for women in their late 30s and 40s.
Professor Nargund cites the agony of a growing number of women left childless as a key reason why fertility lessons must be included in the national curriculum. Her controversial
intervention – in which she warns Britain faces a ‘fertility timebomb’ – will fuel the debate over the best time to start a family, amid the rise in women delaying motherhood to pursue careers.
In the letter, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Prof Nargund writes: ‘I have witnessed all too often the shock and agony on the faces of women who realise they have left it too late to start a family.
For so many, this news comes as a genuine surprise and the sense of devastation and regret can be overwhelming.
Posted by: Common Sense 31st May 2015, 06:19 PM
What do you think about this? With so many teen pregnancies is it wise to tell girls at school about the dangers of infertility? 
Is this scaremongering? I know fertility for women supposedly starts to fall after 40 but this says women may be leaving it too late in their 30's too. Discuss please.
Posted by: Silas 31st May 2015, 06:23 PM
What a load of f***ing shit.
Posted by: Doctor Blind 31st May 2015, 06:27 PM
Teenage pregnancy has actually fallen by a http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31602417 so Chris you need to educate yourself on the statistics.
Posted by: Qassändra 31st May 2015, 06:31 PM
Yeah, teenage pregnancy really isn't much of a thing anymore.
Posted by: Common Sense 31st May 2015, 06:33 PM
Okay, right. What are your thoughts on the advice being given then?
Posted by: Common Sense 31st May 2015, 06:34 PM
Right. Care to elaborate? Surely fertility specialists can't be wrong!
Posted by: Common Sense 31st May 2015, 06:35 PM
DELETED.
Posted by: Silas 31st May 2015, 06:35 PM
Sure 'specialists'. Like the people that write for the daily mail are 'journalists'.
Posted by: Doctor Blind 31st May 2015, 06:38 PM
Whilst the advice is fairly sound, it completely fails to recognise the REAL problem which is housing.
Lack of affordable housing means that couples in their late twenties have to delay having children until they can get a secure home, this problem is particularly pertinent in London.
However nothing will be done by this Conservative government, so the problem with IVF costing the NHS will only become worse in the next 10-20 years IMO.
Posted by: Griff 31st May 2015, 06:47 PM
I do f***ing hate people who are stuck in the 2000s with the teen pregnancies thing. It's like 'chav' still being a thing (well, round my endz at least).
Posted by: #BJSCFLOPPERRRRR 31st May 2015, 07:10 PM
Both these things still exist in huge numbers in the North East.
Charvers were never a fad in the North East. they started here and are literally a way of life, not a passing trend Londoners jumped on.
Posted by: Gage 31st May 2015, 07:19 PM
Where are you from Michael?
Posted by: Silas 31st May 2015, 08:00 PM
Chav was never a thing here. NED however...
Posted by: popchartfreak 31st May 2015, 08:28 PM
oh, must be just my relatives and friends with the teen pregnancies and chav thing, then, and the living off the state rather than working.
I'm so glad it's a thing of the past, the politicians have all done their job marvellously. Sorted.
(sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, they say. I see it as a challenge 
)
PS, earlier comment, yes the reason people leave it later is because they can't afford to have kids without being crushed by housing debt, or else they don't work and live off the state cos you get the equivalent of 26k for not working. Damned either way, really, which is why the imported young educated foreign workers seemed such an attractive thing a decade ago - didn't have to pay for the education and they arrived fully formed into the workforce.
Posted by: Suedehead2 31st May 2015, 09:26 PM
I have three nephews and a niece, all born to mothers in their late-thirties to mid-forties. Of course, that doesn't prove anything. Counter-examples cannot disprove a general statement.
It has been said many times before that the twenties is the best age for first-time motherhood. However, I do think this is being over-played. For a start, if a woman wants a family and a career, she is likely to want to be established in a career before starting a family. Clearly, part of that is likely to be waiting until she and a partner can afford it, something the Daily Wail is normally very keen to preach.
Posted by: Soy Adrián 31st May 2015, 11:47 PM
It's also surely now a factor that increasing life expectancy reduces the incentive to have children young. If you were expecting to live to 70, waiting until after 30 to have children may seem borderline irresponsible. If you're likely to reach 80-85 then far less so.
Posted by: popchartfreak 1st June 2015, 04:57 PM
It has been said many times before that the twenties is the best age for first-time motherhood. However, I do think this is being over-played. For a start, if a woman wants a family and a career, she is likely to want to be established in a career before starting a family. Clearly, part of that is likely to be waiting until she and a partner can afford it, something the Daily Wail is normally very keen to preach.
No, and we all have examples we can cite to support our view on anything. My mum had me at 19, she wasn't an irresponsible parent, just a very poor (financially) parent. It's the circles you move in, though there has been a trend among the young to wait longer these days. I'm more or less the same age as you and I have SEVEN great nieces and nephews, and only one brother two years younger than me. The youngest of my nieces and nephews are just coming up to 10. When I was a teen I had loads of great grandparents. I think working class families just expect to start families younger, and that hasn't changed that much even if the figures have halved.
My middle class friends all had much older parents and they tended to have kids a bit later (though mostly not around 40, but some have).
Posted by: Suedehead2 1st June 2015, 05:04 PM
My middle class friends all had much older parents and they tended to have kids a bit later (though mostly not around 40, but some have).
Whereas my youngest nephew is just coming up to six-and-a-half weeks
Sadly, all my great-grandparents were long dead by the time I was born.
Posted by: popchartfreak 1st June 2015, 07:21 PM
Sadly, all my great-grandparents were long dead by the time I was born.
just as well I didn't mention my eldest niece is 32 in a couple of months and there are another 6 nephew/nieces following at intervals...
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