Missed conceptions: the need for education

Chapman, Michael G; Driscoll, Geoffrey L; Jones, Bryony

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00274.x

Topics

Delayed childbearing is not an issue to “keep mum” about

For fertility specialists, there is no more difficult and depressing news to break to a woman seeking a baby than “Sadly, it’s too late. You’re menopausal.” In our experience, this situation is encountered with ever-increasing frequency as the age of first attempting to conceive increases. With 1% of the female population menopausal by 40 years and 5% by 43 years,1 and with many more perimenopausal, the rising number of disappointed older women is not surprising.

School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: michael.chapman@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au

Competing interests:

None identified.

1. Coulam CB, Adamson SC, Annagers JF. Incidence of premature ovarian failure. Obstet Gynecol 1986; 67: 604-606.
2. Frazier LM, Grainger DA, Schieve LA, Toner JP. Follicle-stimulating hormone and estradiol levels independently predict the success of assisted reproductive technology treatment. Fertil Steril 2004; 82: 834-840.
3. Laws PJ, Sullivan EA. Australia’s mothers and babies 2003. Sydney: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Perinatal Statistics Unit, 2005. (AIHW Cat. No. PER 29; Perinatal Statististics Series No. 16.)
4. Waters A-M, Dean JH, Sullivan EA. Assisted reproduction technology in Australia and New Zealand 2003. Sydney: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Perinatal Statistics Unit, 2006. (AIHW Cat. No. PER 31; Assisted Reproduction Series No. 9.)
5. Bachrach A. Missed conceptions: a call for “positive” family planning. Med J Aust 2006; 184: 358-360. <eMJA full text>
6. Weston R, Qu L, Partner R, Alexander M. “Its not for lack of wanting kids”: a report on the Fertility Decision Making Project. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2004.
7. Lampic C, Svanberg AS, Karlström P, Tydén T. Fertility awareness, intentions concerning childbearing, and attitudes towards parenthood among female and male academics. Hum Reprod 2006; 21: 558-564.
8. Ittner E, Himmel W, Kochen MM. German family physicians’ attitudes toward care of involuntarily childless patients. Fam Med 2000; 32: 119-125.
9. Bewley S, Davies M, Braude P. Which career first? BMJ 2005; 331: 588-589.
10. Vayena E, Rowe PJ, Griffin PD. Current practices and controversies in assisted reproduction. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.