Experts warn career-driven students about fertility decline

UNIVERSITY students overwhelmingly want to become parents one day, but most have an unrealistic wish list of life goals to achieve first, experts say.

University students typically have little idea about the age and lifestyle factors than can impact their ability to have children, a new study has found.

UNIVERSITY students overwhelmingly want to become parents one day, but most have an unrealistic wish list of life goals to achieve first.

New research, presented as part of Royal Women’s Hospital’s Research Week, has found that though one in six couples will experience infertility, young people typically have little idea about the impact of age and lifestyle on fertility.

Most also have an unrealistic belief that they will be able to rely on IVF in their late thirties or early forties.

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University of Melbourne medical graduate Dr Eugenie Prior led a survey of 1200 university students about their parenthood plans.

She found that while more than 90 per cent typically wanted at least two children, they placed a high value on achieving other life goals first.

Dr Prior, who completed the research under supervision at the Women’s, said many young people were inadvertently narrowing their window of opportunity to conceive before their fertility declined, so it was vital they were educated to begin considering parenthood plans early in life.

Van Sharma with son Jeevan. Picture: Dezine By Mauro

“We need GPs and school sex education to start having the fertility conversation early — not necessarily saying you need to go out and have a baby now, but not making it something people ‘think about later’,” Dr Prior said.

“Career or parenthood shouldn’t be an either-or situation. We need to support women to have children when it’s ideal biologically.”

Research also presented at the Women’s this week has shown age affects not just fertility, prematurity, and the chance of stillbirths and birth defects, but also the experience of labour.

Emeritus professor Ulla Waldenstrom, from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, said muscle, connective tissue and cells — including those in the reproductive system — broke down with age, so women who delayed having a child until after age 35 were more likely to experience difficult labours and perineum tears.

“We found that older first-time mothers were much more enthusiastic about labour, whereas the young ones were more afraid,” she said.

“But it was the younger women who had the best experiences of labour.”

Prof Waldenstrom said she predicted the average age at which people become parents would begin to decrease.

“I think there will be a shift as more young people question whether this is the tempo they want to have in their lives, and what they want out of life.”

 

Sharnan Rayner says women in medicine are pressured to delay parenthood. Picture: Mark Stewart

Children versus career for university graduates

THE dilemma of whether to focus on a career or motherhood in her most fertile years is one medical graduate Sharnan Rayner has discussed often.

Ms Rayner, 24, who has just finished medical school, faces another four years’ training to become a GP.

And many of her friends pursuing other specialities face a further eight years of on-the-job training.

“Are they going to start when they’re well into their 30s, or should they just get started having a family?

“I’m probably going to delay things until my training is done, but it’s a tricky question,” she said.

Melbourne banking professional Van Sharma, 39, always wanted to become a mother, but filled her 20s and early 30s with travel, education and her career.

At 34, she froze her eggsthrough Melbourne IVF as an “insurance policy”. Three years later, she gave birth to son ­Jeevan, now 13 months.

“I was conscious of how age plays on fertility and so planned accordingly. My advice to others is to educate yourself early,” she said.

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