根据一项旨在呼吁开展全国防止不育教育项目的报告，数百万澳洲人将发现生个小孩比他们想象的更难了，甚至有些人根本就不能生育了。
这个全国性生育研究显示，年龄在30到39岁的人中有88%的男性和57%的女性认为自己没有生育问题。
但是，他们错了。
不育就在我们身边——每六对夫妇中就有一对遭受不育困扰——因为现在人们要孩子的年龄推后，这样留给生育的时间大大减少。只有27%的女性在30岁以前生下第一个孩子，而30年前这个数字是92%。生育年龄推后是不育的一个主要问题，想想看，一个女性在21岁时有超过1百万个卵细胞，但是到了27岁就只有大约150000个了。
主管澳大利亚生育协会保护生育力计划的Anne Clark指出，年龄对女性生育力的影响存在着误解，而年龄对男性生育力的影响则存在着更多的误解。 在被调查的2400人中，只有2%的人认为男性不育是接受试管受精治疗的原因，没有人认为年龄是导致不育的因素。但生育协会指出，男性不育是寻求试管受精治疗的夫妻中最常见的原因。
Clark 医生向联邦政治家们展示了生育协会的研究结果，这些政治家们专门组织了一个小组以推动一个国家生育政策。 该小组一位叫Liberal MP Mal Washer的协作者把对不育的忽视形容为“一个国家的灾难”，他指出：“调查显示，一场关于生育年龄、吸烟以及其他诸如肥胖等因素导致不育的全国教育战役迫在眉睫了”。
医学生殖学家Ian Fraser 告诉政治家们抛开需要保护生育率的政策不说，政府在这个问题变得很严重的时候未能对一些生育研究做出正式反应。这包括Fraser教授2005年的一个报告，在该报告中，Fraser教授介绍了很多关于男性不育治疗和公众教育问题。
联邦政府卫生部发言人Tony Abbott 说，政府还在考虑Fraser的报告“这个报告以及政府的决策将会在年底公布”。生育研究研究指出：就算人们知道了年龄对于生育的影响，也不会对人们决定何时生育孩子造成影响。
Clark医生说：与一些流行的看法相反，选择晚生孩子并不是女性忙于她们的职业，而是寻求稳定的关系和经济保障。被调查的女性将职业原因排到了14个影响她们做出生育小孩的决定因素的第13位，30岁时还没有小孩的女性中有三分之一是因为她们没有伴侣。
Clark指出，现在的社会变化迫使人们生育小孩的年龄推后，任何教育活动都应该鼓励那些在30多岁试图生育小孩，但经过6到12个月的尝试还不能成功的夫妇寻求帮助。
Ignorance a factor in infertility
Annabel Stafford
October 13, 2006
MILLIONS of Australians will find it much harder to have children than they expect — or may not be able to have them at all — according to a landmark new report that has led to calls for a national education program to prevent infertility.
The National Fertility Study shows that 88 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women between the ages of 30 and 39 reckon they will have children without any problem.
They're wrong.
While infertility has always been around — one in six couples will suffer from it — because people are now having children much later in life, the time left to conceive has been cut dramatically. Just 27 per cent of women have their first child before they turn 30, compared to 92 per cent 30 years ago. This is a major problem for fertility considering that at 21 a woman has more than 1 million eggs while at 27 she has only about 150,000.
Anne Clark, who runs the fertility preservation project for the Fertility Society of Australia, said while there was misunderstanding about the effects of age on a woman's fertility, there was even more misunderstanding about its effects on a man's.
Only 2 per cent of the 2400 people surveyed believed a man's infertility was a reason people got IVF treatment and none believed a man's age was a factor. But male infertility is the most common reason couples seek IVF, according to the Fertility Society.
Dr Clark presented the results of the Fertility Study this week to federal politicians who have formed a group dedicated to promoting the need for a national fertility policy.
The group's co-ordinator, Liberal MP Mal Washer, described ignorance about fertility as "a national disaster". The survey proved the need for a national education campaign about the effects on fertility of age, smoking and other factors such as obesity, he said.
Reproductive medicine expert Ian Fraser told the politicians that despite the desperate need for a fertility preservation policy, the Government had failed to release or publicly respond to several reviews into infertility made since it had come to power. These included a 2005 review by Professor Fraser, which is believed to recommend more public education about and treatments for male infertility.
A spokeswoman for federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said that the Government was still considering the Fraser review and "the report, together with the Government's response, will be made public before the end of the year".
The Fertility Study suggests that even if people know about the effect of age on fertility, it may not change decisions about when to have children.
Contrary to popular belief, later childbearing was not due to women pursuing their careers, but to a desire for stable relationships and financial security, Dr Clark said. Surveyed women rated career equal 13th of 14 factors that would influence their decision to have children, while one in three women in their 30s had no children because they had no partner.
Dr Clark said that because such societal changes were forcing people to have children later, any education campaign should also encourage couples in their 30s to seek help if they were unable to conceive after six to 12 months of trying.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ignorance-a-factor-in-infertility/2006/10/12/1160246263554.html
编辑：蓝色幻想
