The Provocateur: ‘We need to teach schoolchildren how to get pregnant’

Generations of women have grown up being educated about contraception. But with a fertility crisis looming, Amy Iggulden argues that learning how to conceive should be part of the national curriculum too

I remember clearly the lesson that began and ended my own adolescent education in making babies. Miss, wearing blue latex gloves and barely suppressing a snigger, inexpertly slid a condom over a fake plastic penis. Then we all watched a video of a couple grunting and having sex. Babies were barely mentioned, the only ‘takeaway’ was how absolutely not to get pregnant.

This was the 1990s, when soaring teenage pregnancy rates were a matter of national debate, and contraceptive messages were badly needed. Since then, however, the teenage pregnancy rate has dropped dramatically. Just 3.4% of live births are now to women aged under 20.

Yet at the same time, Britain’s fertility crisis has worsened. Is it a coincidence that so many of us, taught only how not to get pregnant, are discovering we can’t undo that message? That’s why it’s time we started teaching schoolgirls how to get pregnant. Giving fertility lessons, ovulation homework and hormone quizzes alongside the contraceptive advice they already receive. It may sound an unlikely, even irresponsible, suggestion. But with one in six couples struggling to conceive, sperm counts halving in 40 years and maternal age steadily increasing, fertility education is urgently needed. I’m not suggesting that teenagers should have babies. But by failing to teach generations of girls how to get pregnant, we have left grown women unable to do so: unaware of the symptoms of infertility and blinded by the belief that IVF can solve every problem. It’s time to have fertility lessons alongside contraceptive advice, not to scare children but to give women the tools to understand their own bodies. Because it’s not just about having babies. It is astonishing how many well-educated adults, suddenly wanting a baby or facing fertility problems, don’t know the basic details of gynaecology: the fact women are fertile for only a few days a month or how many eggs they release in a year; let alone the rudimentary facts about declining fertility and how, when – why exactly – conception takes place.

In a secondary school class of 30, up to five could experience fertility problems in

their adult relationship. In an era where women cannot rely on an eligible man being ‘ready’ or even available in her most fertile years, coupled with the demands of a career, we need to arm them with as much information as possible.

The alternative is what we have now: women who genuinely don’t know that the Pill can mask fertility problems, who aren’t aware of the subtle interplay of hormones that dictate our well-being, and who head into their thirties without any idea if their eggs will last until 35, never mind 45, the age over which 2,286 women in the UK had babies last year*.

Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director at the Create Fertility clinics UK, is an early adopter. She is funding fertility lessons for pupils from 14 in two schools in South London and told me, ‘ The perfect age to start teaching pupils about fertility is 14 and 15. We’re trying to give them a subtle message. On the one hand, we are telling them how to prevent a pregnancy in the near future, while also warning them about the lifestyle and medical factors that affect their fertility and also the long-term impact of delaying parenthood for too long.’ She insists the pupils she has taught proved more than capable of absorbing this nuance – once she had won over their concerned parents.

In Denmark they’re ahead of the curve. The government started teaching kids about fertility in 2015, after figures showed that 24% of couples fail to conceive in the first year of trying. The family planning lessons explain what fertility is, when the best times to have children are – biologically speaking – and what effect ageing can have. The Dutch go even further, starting sex education in primary school, with four-yearolds learning about love and 11-year-olds learning about gender and contraception.

By teaching girls the facts about fertility and the delicate hormone balance behind it – how fertility works, how long it works and when, generally, it works best – we are at least equipping them with knowledge. How they use that is up to them. They may choose to have regular ‘fertility MOTS’ once they hit their late twenties. They may choose to freeze eggs in their early thirties, knowing they have 10 years in which to use them alone or find Mr or Ms Right. Or they may even choose to have babies earlier, having tested their egg reserve. That will be up to them. But by failing to educate schoolgirls about fertility, we are leaving grown women in the dark about the most important decisions of their lives.