Lifestyle factors are influencing family health

Many people are leaving it later in family life to have a child, according to one expert, who said that "inequitable social criteria" could stop many older couples getting access to some NHS treatment.

Clare Lewis-Jones, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, said that more mature couples need to know that IVF does not have a guaranteed success rate and when women are over 35 the success rate declines rapidly.

"We are aware that many couples are leaving it till later in life before trying to conceive and with the possibility that lifestyle factors may be affecting our fertility, more couples will find they have trouble conceiving," she said.

The expert added that infertility is emotionally and physically devastating to couples' family health and they must be supported.

Research from the University of St Andrews and Edinburgh University has shown that women lose 90 per cent of their ovum by the age of 30.

Alice Rowe

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Date Posted: 28/01/2010

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