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Missed conceptions: the need for education

Michael G Chapman, Geoffrey L Driscoll and Bryony Jones
Med J Aust 2006; 184 (7): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00274.x
Published online: 3 April 2006

Delayed childbearing is not an issue to “keep mum” about

For fertility specialists, there is no more difficult and depressing news to break to a woman seeking a baby than “Sadly, it’s too late. You’re menopausal.” In our experience, this situation is encountered with ever-increasing frequency as the age of first attempting to conceive increases. With 1% of the female population menopausal by 40 years and 5% by 43 years,1 and with many more perimenopausal, the rising number of disappointed older women is not surprising.


  • School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.



Competing interests:

None identified.

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