Tag Archives: pregnancy

A Pre-Feminism Tale

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in Fempire

≈ 35 Comments

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The other day I was talking with a friend who is in her early 60s. She happened to mention, in passing, that her grandmother had been a doctor.

Yes, that’s right, her GRANDMOTHER had been a doctor, specializing in head injuries, no less.

Now considering my friend is a baby boomer, that means her grandmother became a doctor many, many years before feminism supposedly opened up such opportunities to women. How could that be? So naturally I asked more questions.

Interestingly, it turns out her grandmother followed the path currently advised by the red pill, she married young to a good man, had their four children young, raised them while her husband worked his career, and then once their children were grown (her early 40s) she went to college, became a doctor, and started her career. Her grandmother practiced medicine well into her 80s.

It had never occurred to my friend that what her grandmother had accomplished, becoming a female doctor, was perhaps unusual for her time until I pointed it out.

This story is a good example of how today’s thinking that women should put off marriage and children until after she establishes her education and career may not be the optimal path after all. Or that if she marries and has children young, she will “miss” her chance to have a career.

Traditionally women followed their ideal biological life path — having children in their early 20s during their prime childbearing years, then shifting gears toward career as they reached their perimenopausal and menopausal years — when they are unencumbered by children and also will not have to “pause” that career once it is underway, like a woman who aims to establish her career early in life likely will when/if she chooses to have children later in life.

I have known many women of my generation (including myself, I am in my mid-40s and have young children) who put off childbearing until the last possible biological moment because they were mislead that they had all the time in the world to have kids, but not a career.

I was lucky to concieve both times easily and quickly despite my advanced age. Two of  three dear friends heartbreakingly never conceived despite expensive ($10,000+) infertility treatments. A third did finally succeed (happily!) after many tens of thousands of dollars and multiple attempts and is now finding just how difficult it is in reality to maintain a demanding career with an infant. Yet she’s afraid to take time off, lose her connections, and then be unable to restart her career later. A fourth friend didn’t start thinking of marriage and kids until she was in her mid 30s. She has yet to find a mate and at 45, children are now unlikely.

Sadly, these women followed the supposedly new and improved life script, only to find out it has some drawbacks they had never been advised of. No path is perfect. All paths involve possible trade offs. And they always have. And they always will.

It’s something young women of today would be wise to ponder. Does the path recommended to women today really make the most sense based on what she wants in life?

Perhaps the path my babysitter has chosen (to get her degree, have kids, then pursue her career with some additional refresher training when her children are older, then pursue her career in earnest for the second half of her life) lines up more naturally with a woman’s seasons of life?

The thing about life paths is there often aren’t do-overs later when one regrets the path chosen or is unhappy with the trade-offs. So best to figure it out early, and be sure you have thought things through. Both paths involve risk and uncertainty, is one path riskier and less certain?

Discuss. Deliberate. Ponder.

 

Female Fertility Does Have a “Use By” Date

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Sex and Such

≈ 17 Comments

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Female fertility is often a taboo topic, but I think it’s one that needs to be discussed more openly and honestly than it is currently. So I am going to take the risk and talk about this important topic in the interest of freedom of information.

In addition to writing this blog, I have spent the last 20+ years working as a writer and editor, mostly covering the health and medical beat. Fertility, infertility, women’s reproductive health, birth control, and the like are topics I have covered many times.

Something that is often not said is that female fertility starts to decline, and dramatically so, around age 35. But with so many women being encouraged to put career before babies, the message they are often told is “there’s always time for that.”

Well, three dear friends of mine have found out the hard way that’s simply not true. All waited to around age 38 to get started with baby making, only to find even with all the help medical science had to offer, it just wasn’t meant to be. All were devastated by this fact. And all said, “Why didn’t someone tell me?”

It’s because of what I watched them go through that I am telling you this now.

But celebrities are having babies left and right at age 45 plus, right? Yes, some do. But not without a lot of help, and possibly a surrogate, or donor eggs, or adoption.

The truth is, after age 40 even the most advanced infertility procedure — in vitro — where sperm and egg meet outside of the body and are implanted at just the right moment — has about a 2 percent success rate (after age 40.)

Even if a woman freezes her eggs while younger, the success rates of the in vitro procedure are not increased. The hormonal mix after age 40 is hit and miss.

For some women, it indeed is no problem. In fact, after the age of 40 is the second most common time for a woman to have an unplanned pregnancy, resulting in “change of life babies” who are born to moms who think they don’t have to worry about birth control measures anymore.

I had my own children at the age of 33 and 40, both conceived within three months of deciding to try. I think a lot of that was due to both my in depth knowledge of how it works, and also just plain old good luck.

Maybe it is TMI, but I have always had very regular cycles and I have never had some of the the gyn issues that some women struggle with, such as endometriosis, fibroids, pelvic inflammatory disease, STD’s, or other factors that can greatly impact fertility. For women who do have these issues, timing is even more critical as their fertility can be severely compromised even by their mid 20s.

If you want a family, may I suggest another path? Have your children young and start you career in your 40s, rather than the more promoted path of having a career in your 20s and 30s and starting a family at 40.

I would not wish upon anyone the heartbreak and disappointment I have watched my friends go though. They just didn’t know, and nobody ever told them this. That’s why I am telling you this now. Infertility is not something I would wish on anyone, and it is a very private and deep pain.

Of my three friends (and their husbands), one has adopted two little girls, one has decided to stop trying infertility treatments and to accept her DINK lifestyle and focus on being thankful she has her wonderful husband to share her life with, and the third is right now undergoing what will likely be the final attempts. I know all would give almost anything for things to have turned out differently and for the third, I still hope that they will.

Doing different is not always easy, but sometimes it is the best path. There are challenges of parenting at any age, so I am not sure the advice to put off babies until one is in her late 30s for financial and career reasons is sound advice. I got lucky. And I am glad that I did. But just because it worked out that way for me, is no guarantee it will for others.

After watching what my friends have gone through, it’s not a risk I would advise someone talking unless they are 100 percent ok with the possibility that it may never happen at all.

(And btw, I am in no way endorsing teen pregnancy or that women have babies when they are not in a lifetime relationship. If it happens, by all means make the best of it, but to do so on purpose is just as unwise as waiting until age 47 to start trying.)