NHS fertility doctor says women ‘should start trying by 30’

THE STORY

This was the story splashed across the front pages in

2015, when senior consultant gynaecologist Professor Geeta Nargund wrote to the then education secretary Nicky Morgan to call for fertility lessons to be added to the national curriculum, and for women to start trying for children before they turn 30. In her letter, she wrote of the burden that fertility treatment was placing on the NHS, as well as the heartbreak of couples for whom natural conception was no longer an option.

THE SCIENCE

It’s true that female fertility declines with age, says obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Larisa Corda. But, she points out, it’s a progressive decline rather than a precipice, and 35 is the age at which you start to see an effect on both egg count and egg quality. ‘Women are born with a finite number of eggs, unlike men, who produce sperm throughout their lifetimes,’ she explains. ‘The longer the eggs are in your body, the more exposure they have to the ageing process, like any other organ.’ The result is potential abnormal chromosomes, which is why rates of miscarriage increase after 35. The odds of having a miscarriage are one in 10 for a woman in her twenties, while it’s two in 10 for those aged 35 to 39. For a woman at 40, the risk of miscarriage increases to four in 10 and goes up to seven in 10 for those aged 45. All experts contacted by WH for this piece believe there’s a balance to be struck between educating women and scaring them, with consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Kate Morton – founder of Dr Morton’s medical helpline (drmortons.co.uk) – making the point that, in the context of a world where the traditional markers of adulthood (landing a well-paid job, achieving financial independence, owning a home) are harder to achieve than they used to be, it’s both inaccurate and unhelpful to perpetuate the idea that a woman ceases to be fertile at 35.