The baby talk: Giving would-be mothers a reality check

Many women are trying to have it all. But increasingly, physicians are having to explain the truth of biological clocks and remind patients that having it all may have a time limit.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Oct. 21, 2002.

They make it look easy. The celebrities who are regularly featured on tabloid covers, appearing to have almost effortlessly had a baby or two after age 40.

Physicians, however, tell a different story. Some infertility specialists whisper about who among the glamorous really had in vitro fertilization and who had to use donor eggs. And they talk about another all-too-common scenario -- the many noncelebrity patients who show up after age 35 having failed to get pregnant. These women are often shaken because they thought it would be easier; they thought they had lots of time.

In some ways, they have fallen prey to a mixed message. There are images everywhere of women having it all on their own time schedule and assurances that modern technology can lend a hand to make almost anything possible, even a family. In reality, however, sometimes science can't trump Mother Nature. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, 6.1 million women had impaired fertility in 1995, an increase from 4.9 million in 1988. The agency accounts for some of the increase with the aging of the baby boom generation.

To clarify confusion caused by these impressions, two specialty organizations have launched public education campaigns about fertility issues, and they hope primary care doctors will play a key role in getting the message out.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's campaign began last year with posters on buses urging people to protect their fertility from smoking, sexually transmitted diseases, unhealthy body weight and advancing age. This year, the organization will distribute information packets in community health centers. The American Infertility Assn.'s effort will start later this year and target both consumers and physicians. [...]