For the purposes of this article, imagine you are you, except that you are 25-years-old. You may or may not have recently finished university, you’re probably on the lower rungs at work and adult life is a newish feeling. Property ownership is a far-off abstract concept. According to fertility experts, now is the perfect time to have a child!
That’s right, a child. Despite your own prolonged childhood, and inability to access adulthood, a child is what you must bear. If we each had a viable egg for every time we heard this argument the world would be overrun with screaming toddlers. The latest person to nag at the heels - or should that be wombs? - of women in their mid-twenties is Dr Gillian Lockwood, of the Midland Fertility Clinic, who said: 'It may not be true that women should be having babies at the time of their GCSEs…' Phew.
She continued: '…but they shouldn’t leave it much later than graduation.'
Oh. She later explained, reports AOL: 'Age 25 is exactly the time when today’s young women have left university, are trying to get off on a good career, trying to pay back their student loans, trying to find someone who wants to have babies with them and trying to get on the housing ladder.'
Yikes, it’s almost as if Dr Lockwood, speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, is completely unaware of the multitude of pressures facing young women. She later said that while women can reverse aging on the outside, 'You can’t Botox your ovaries.'
Strangely enough, despite the constant thud of nagging in young women’s ears about the sell-by-date on their eggs, research is beginning to show that men have a biological clock, too. Speaking at the very same event, fertility expert Professor Allan Pacey said that children born to men over 40 are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia, autism and Down’s syndrome. He advised women, reports* The Metro*: 'You should be going for the hot, vile toy boys, posters and boybands - that is where you should be heading.'
What’s that? Ridiculous comments made about young people in the name of fertility? Well, if it’s going to happen to the women, it might as well happen to the men, too. After all, equality and all that!
You might also be interested in:
Fertility MOTs: Is 25 Way Too Soon To Be Preparing For Motherhood?
Telling Women To Start Trying For Babies Before 30 Isn't Remotely Empowering
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.