...and teenagers get ‘fertility classes’

SECONDARY school pupils will be given occasional ‘ fertility lessons’ to help address concerns that many are leaving it too late in life to try for a baby.

Teenagers will be taught when women are at their most fertile as part of the compulsory health education classes.

The lessons will highlight how a woman’s fertility tends to decrease after the age of 35 and will explain how ‘lifestyle factors’ such as age, obesity and drink can affect fertility.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, recently expressed concern about the ‘steady shift’ towards women postponing a family only to find they have left it too late.

Joyce Harper, of the Fertility Education Initiative, said: ‘The delay in starting a family increases every year. We need to be sure that young people are aware of their fertility and how to prepare to have a healthy family.’

Professor Geeta Nargund, of the IVF centre CREATE Fertility, said: ‘We should focus on preventing infertility, rather than rely on treatment all the time. This is about empowering young people with knowledge.

‘A reduction in the number of people needing treatment will ultimately reduce costs to the health service too.’

The lessons will be introduced from 2020 and must be ‘age-appropriate’. It is understood that schools will be allowed to deliver them as they see fit.

It is not known which age groups in secondary schools will receive the lessons. More details are expected to be released today when the guidance is officially published.