Female students at Cambridge to be given fertility lessons

Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Dorothy Byrne, the new president of Murray Edwards, said the new lessons would help “empower” female students to understand more about their fertility. Byrne, who gave birth to her only daughter at the age of 45 through IVF treatment, told the newspaper that it had become “almost forbidden” to ask women about plans for children, adding: “We have swung too far one way.” “Young women are being taught that they all have to do well in school, get a degree, be successful in their career, and be beautiful,” she said. “The thing that is getting lost along the way is that you forget to have a baby, which I nearly did.” The 69-year-old former head of news at Channel 4 continued: “I was a woman thinking about her career and thinking one day I will have a baby but not putting enough attention into it.” The average age for giving birth in the UK is 30 years old, but studies show that female fertility starts to decline in the mid-thirties, especially after the age of 35. For example, women who want two children should start trying to conceive at the age of 28, while those who want three children “probably have to start trying when you’re 23”.