Non-fertile women desirable, too

One has to wonder what King Henry VIII would make of the science that men are just as responsible for rising infertility rates.

The Tudor king, who created the Church of England and modern divorce, went through six wives not just because he was a womanizer — kings of this age were almost expected to have mistresses— but because of his relentless pursuit of a male heir. He finally got one from his third wife Jane Seymour, but part of the reason he beheaded his second wife Anne Boleyn is because he was furious she’d miscarried a son. The dark irony of all this is that some historians say it was his fault.

Henry likely had syphilis in addition to gout, which would have reduced his own fertility as well as his sexual partners’ ability to carry healthy children.

But stillborn children were considered a curse of an unhealthy womb in the Tudor age and for much of Western history. The Greeks and Romans may have hinted at the male role in fertility in their texts, but it was assumed only women could be barren.

This false assumption echoes in our society today with commentary that declining birthrates in the West are just a symptom of selfish females who put off childbearing to pursue a career. Now, obviously there is some scientific basis to this, but increasingly, we are learning male fertility also declines with age. And just last week, a study proclaimed the quality of Western sperm has also dropped as unhealthy lifestyles increase.

These reports offer some balance to the damaging trope there’s just something wrong with women who can’t have children. And that’s without even going into women who don’t want to.

But columnist John Robson must have missed the memo that male fertility is also a fragile thing, given his suggestion elsewhere on this page that 63-year-old Christie Brinkley is unlucky in love because she’s past child-bearing age. Somehow, he also tied that to falling birthrates and the fact the prime minister of Japan’s wife doesn’t have kids.

To Robson, evidently, a woman is only desirable so long as her ovaries keep pumping out eggs.

He was responding to an off-the-cuff comment Brinkley made about not dating anyone right now. She said “it’s not easy” at her age to find a new romance — not a new complaint. It’s one male celebrities have made too, but