here comes a time,
around the point when
buying a spanking new
T Dyson is as exciting as
a Topshop spree and
you choose wine dependent on the
year, not by the half-price sticker,
when the subject of babies shifts into
focus. Friends start popping them
out, other friends are planning to and
the question of whether you might
want to one day be called ‘Mum’ can
start to become a valid concern. This
is usually around the time you turn
that magic number: 30.
Thirty also happens to be the final
year that, ideally, you should be
getting pregnant. That’s right,
according to the medical world our
bodies were designed to have babies
between the ages of 18 and 30,
despite the fact that the conception
rate for women aged 40+ has
reached a record high with 29,976
babies born last year.
Although we’re told that our
biological clock ticks at a rapid pace,
the reality is that few of us are ready
to take the baby leap at a time when
we’re still navigating jobs, relationships
CAN
YOU BEAT
YOUR
BIOLOGICAL
CLOCK?
Every week a new shock statistic tells us
we shouldn’t delay motherhood
but is there a way to press pause on our
fertility? Stylist investigates
and first homes. Wouldn’t it be great if,
like an internal Sky Plus remote, we
could press pause on our biological
clocks and come back to that decision
when the rest of our life has slotted
into place enough for us to welcome a
baby. Indeed, could we? Are we really
powerless over our fertility or can we
take control over our bodies and beat
our own biological clock?
To answer that question is to firstly
look at this elusive biological clock
that seems to have such unwielding
power over our life plan. The term
biological clock actually refers to
the innate rhythm of behaviour and
body activity in living things, such as
when we eat, sleep and wake. But it
can also be used to describe certain
body functions that are subject to
rhythm, such as the body’s loss of
fertility as we age.
Although many women talk of
WORDS: ANNA MOORE
PHOTOGRAPHY: JILL GREENBERG
‘feeling broody’ as they reach the age
when the biological clock is ticking
loudest, there are no recognised
outward signs that your body is
nearing the end of its fertile years.
This clock is a silent one.
However, two new pieces of
research have indicated that perhaps
subconsciously, your body feeds you
messages that it’s baby time – in line
with the so-called ticking of your
biological clock. A recent paper
published by the University of Texas
found that between age 20 and your
late 30s – prime baby-making years
– women experience a heightened
sexual drive which then drops
post 40. Scientists believe this is
because we’re aware that we have
a decreasing time period in which to
have children which therefore drives
us to initiate sex.
Another study found that when
“WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT IF, LIKE
AN INTERNAL SKY PLUS REMOTE,
WE COLD PRESS PAUSE ON OUR
BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS”
FERTILITY
women have increased levels of
oestrogen and progesterone, for
example if they’re ovulating or taking
the Pill, they have a strengthened
desire to form a bond with children.
When shown pictures of babies they
were more likely to hone in on
cuteness. It is thought that seeing
cuteness is one of nature’s ways of
helping mothers bond with babies.
It’s also important to get your head
around the fertility statistics. While
they sound bleak, women aged 35 are
half as fertile as those aged 31. By 38,
fertility is halved again. At 40, the
average woman has a 5% chance of
conceiving on any given month – and
by 45, her chances are less than 1%,
the reality is that we continually lose
eggs from birth.
A baby girl is born with all the eggs
(or to be precise, the ovarian follicles
that mature into eggs) that she’s ever
going to have. (Studies suggest she
starts with about two million.) From
birth onwards, these ovarian follicles
die off through a natural process
known as ‘follicular atresia’ (basically
pre-programmed cell death).
By the time the girl reaches
WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK����
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.