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Misperceptions about fertility
I thought this article was interesting. Your thoughts?
Many women misinformed when it comes to fertility
Let?s say you?re a newly married, perfectly healthy 30-year-old woman. You and your husband have stable jobs, a three-bedroom house, a Golden Retriever.
In other words, you?re ready to start having kids.
Easy peasy, right? You?re still young. You?ll get pregnant quickly, as the women on television sitcoms do. You?ll soon be changing poopie diapers.
Not so fast. You?re probably not as fertile as you think you are. It could take awhile. That middle school sex-ed teacher who convinced you that you?ll get knocked up anytime the truck drives into the garage was wrong?and he never told you that fertility decreases dramatically with age.
But don?t feel badly about your ignorance. The results of a recent fertility awareness survey reveal that most women think it?s much easier to get pregnant than it really is.
For the study, presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 1,000 women ages 25 to 35 were asked 10 questions about fertility, and most of them flunked the test, according to MSNBC.
Questions about the likelihood of becoming pregnant across different age groups were answered correctly by only 8 percent of participants. Most women assume a 30-year-old woman has a 70 percent chance of conceiving per month and that a 40-year-old woman has a 60 percent chance. But really a healthy 30-year-old has a 20 percent chance and that number drops to 15 percent at age 50. Survey respondents also thought it takes an average 20-year-old two months to get pregnant, when it really takes about five months.
What?s more only 31 percent of respondents realize that increasing age is the single strongest risk factor for infertility.
These numbers are troubling because infertility is a huge problem in our country, and 7.3 million women in the U.S. struggle with it. This figure represents 12 percent of women of childbearing age, or 1 in 8 couples, according to the National Infertility Association RESOLVE. You can?t help but wonder if these statistics would improve if women had more accurate information about their fertility and opted to get pregnant sooner rather than later.
Holly Finn, a 43-year-old woman who has suffered from infertility, told MSNBC that she has a simple message for women ages 26 to 34: ?Start having babies now.?
Why are women so clueless about fertility?
The researchers behind the study think women are simply misinformed.
Sex education in America focuses on prevention. In middle and high school lessons are focused on preventing pregnancy and STDs. There?s no talk about fertility and how it decreases with age. Many women don?t learn this lesson until they?re 40 years old and step foot inside an infertility clinic.
What?s more, many women in their 40s are successfully using infertility treatments yet they?re secretive about their use of IVF, and this leads other women to think it?s easy to achieve parenthood later in life. And so when a 40-year-old woman tries to get pregnant and fails, she?s shocked.
?We were not at all surprised,? says Barbara Collura, executive director of RESOLVE, told MSNBC. ?This is what we experience every day.?
Re: Misperceptions about fertility
Um, yah. I was no way prepared to have a baby when I was in my 20's.
While age is a factor in infertility, it is NOT the only factor.
I have to take this article with a grain of salt.
VERY true, but it did resonate that people don't have an understanding of how a woman's body works. DH is a SMART guy and has taken Human Sexuality (in college) and we've timed to conceive once already but the other day he came out with "well, I guess we have to use protection tonight since your AF is due tomorrow so we don't get pg right now" and I had to school him about the 2ww.
the idea of having a baby in my 20's scared the (*&^ outta me. thank you mom and dad for warning us that kids meant that you have to either delay or completely abandon some things you want to do so plan accordingly. i agree, there's more than just age when it comes to fertility. there are infertile 20somethings out there too. genetics plays a huge role too.
all fertility articles i read, i take w/ a grain of salt. yes there is some truth in there but most of it is one giant SCARE tactic to get people to have kids sooner regardless whether they're ready or not.
i've read numerous articles about fertility and they ALL have the same subplot it seems - that the US is woefully uneducated when it comes to fertility and if you want to have kids you NEED to start NOW !!! (20-25 age bracket) b/c your fertility takes a nosedive on your 30th bday. what these articles don't tell you (something that you could get if you read TCOYF) is that as you age, yes it will take longer to get pg. the difference b/t 3 months for a 25 yo and 5 months for a 30 yo. the headlines blasting that your fertility takes a nosedive at 30, to me at least, is one giant scare tactic to get people to have kids sooner than they might have wanted JUST b/c they read that fertility takes that 30th bday nosedive.
it just sucks that when our bodies are best equiped for pregnancy that financially and emotionally we are nowhere NEAR ready but when most are financially/emotionally ready, the body isn't as well equiped to handle it.
That is true. I think TCOYF should be a mandatory read for sex education.
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I agree with the point about how it's important to have more knowledge of how fertility works, chances of conceiving, etc.
But this part really pisses me off:
As others have stated, having children when younger isn't always an option. And there's something vaguely sexist to me here that I can't put into words. It's like it's valuing women only as mothers and nothing else. Like your career and goals and what you want to do with your life mean nothing. Women are more than baby makers. And even if more women were aware of their chances of conceiving, would that necessarily change their plans?
Also, the 20% chance/70% chance stuff feels misleading to me. That's per month. Lots of people are going to be trying for more than one month. I wish I knew how to do the math on what the chances are for the average amount of time people try, or per year or something along those lines.
I had to think about this percentage too. I read it as 20% chance a year and then realized it meant a month.
I've spent a lot of time on various message boards with women who have children. I think it's exposed me to the reality of what many couples have to face, so I know it's not as easy to get pregnant as we are lead to believe in high school.
I completely agree TCOYF should be required reading in high school. I bought it years ago and learned so much. I'm going to read it again soon because I am planning on using FAM to avoid.
The typical 20ish year old couple also has more sex more often than the typical 30ish year old couple. Sperm age as well. While a man can have children his whole life, his chances of having damaged sperm as he ages contributes pretty significantly to fertility issues. Then there's diet and a whole host of other things that impede fertility.
When I was 13, my mom gave me a copy of Our Bodies Ourselves. If I were to have a daughter, I'd also give her a copy of TCOYF (lest she think she has an infection every time she's midcycle, like I did, mistaking CWCM for yeast)
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Harmony Doula
Totally agree.