Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Female Fertility and Age: Feminist Propaganda vs Biology


There was an anonymous comment on my article Why should it be "creepy" if an older guy takes a young woman?, and since it's an important issue, I thought it's better to reply to the following extensively in a separate blog post in order to not clutter up the conversation on this site too much:
I can't help but feel like this sounds a bit like Roosh and the manosphere's "cock carousel" obsession, and the idea that women are "used-up" by 25. Correct me on the difference if I'm wrong.
I don't quite see the connection to the cock carousel hypothesis of the manosphere, which I have previously covered anyway. However, that older single women are desperate is hard to deny. Well, maybe that's not the case if you take their immature chest-puffing like "and man should be happy to get me" and "mature women are more attractive than younger ones" seriously. But let's forget about political correctness and all that stuff for a while and look at reality.

Fact is that a woman's fertility declines rapidly throughout her 20s. This has nothing to do with the "patriarchy", alleged societal oppression or misogyny. It is simply a fact of life. I'm not too fond of explanations from evolutionary psychology, but I see good reasons why men would prefer, given the choice, to have a younger partner. You're just more likely to have children with her than with a 35 year-old. Therefore, I tempted to think that this explains why men are attracted to young women.

However, feminism happened and with it the systematic indoctrination of women, leading to questionable beliefs such as that she'll be as fertile in her 30s as in her 20s, that she'll be attractive to men basically all her life long, or that it's easy even for 40 year olds to have kids. I've even heard that it was a "lie" that a woman's fertility peaks in her early 20s. But let's just assume you're a feminist who is more interested in facts than ideology, however unlikely that combination may be. Maybe you figure out that typing "age and female fertility" into your favorite search engine is a good starting point.

Shall we have a look at what I found?

There is a good summary on Wikipedia, but I also checked out Babycentre.co.uk. They have a few dozen medical advisors, so they probably don't make stuff up. For starters, their "Your Age and Fertility" page lists some heavy-hitting questions such as, "Does my age affect my fertility?".

Yes, Virginia, it really does. Seriously, what does it say about our educational system when women doubt that. Well, in some corners of this planet "intelligent design" is taught as some kind of alternative to evolution, so you can't just blame the kids. The answer to that question from that site is:

Yes. Fertility starts to decline for women from about the age of 30, dropping down more steeply from the age of 35. As women grow older the likelihood of getting pregnant falls while the likelihood of infertility rises.  
(...) 
The average age at which women have in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment in the UK is rising. This reflects the increase in infertility due to age. However, the success rates of IVF treatment for women over 40 using their own eggs are low, and have not increased much over the past decade.  
From a purely biological perspective, it's best to try to start a family before you're 35 years old.

They even provide a nice chart:



It was adorned by the sad comment, "How do you get your wife to stop blaming you for why she can't get pregnant when none of us has seen a doctor?"


The next question seems superfluous to me, but maybe you have to spell things out for people who don't believe in all that science-stuff:

Will it take longer to conceive as I get older?
Your chance of conceiving quickly does depend on your age. Women are most fertile between the ages of 20 and 24. It can take much longer to get pregnant when you hit your late 30s or early 40s. You may have problems conceiving at all. 

This kind of hand-wringing makes me sick. No, it's not the case that it "can take much longer", but that she can expect that it will take much longer, and that her chances of getting pregnant are dramatically lowered. No, that one of your friends managed to get pregnant at her alleged first try when she was 35 does not prove the contrary.

Then we move on to, "Why does fertility decline so rapidly?":

The two most common causes of female infertility are ovulation problems and blockages to the fallopian tubes as a result of infection.  
Ovulation problems can happen as you get older because: 
You have fewer good quality eggs left, making it more difficult to conceive. Your number of eggs (ovarian reserve) declines with age. You can buy a kit to test for ovarian reserve. These tests can only tell you about the quantity of eggs, not the quality. 
A few women (one per cent) go through the menopause earlier than usual, and stop ovulating before they reach the age of 40. 
Your periods may become irregular. As you approach menopause your periods may become fewer and further between, making ovulation increasingly irregular too.

There is also a note that, for instance, untreated chlamydia may make pregnancy impossible. Well, thankfully all women only have sex in committed relationships, and take good care of their health, so this is nothing anybody would have to worry about, isn't it, girls?

However, let's contrast this healthy does of realism with what you find in the mainstream media. Here's a quote from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

It's a touchy topic: broaching the issue of having children. But OB-GYNs say they are increasingly making it as routine as asking about contraception during annual visits. They are educating patients about fertility rates, which gradually begin to decline around age 32 and then rapidly decline after age 37. And they are discussing the risks of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities, which increase at age 35 and above.

Maybe it's irrelevant, but the author of the article happened to be a woman. This might explain the factual inaccuracy that female fertility will "gradually begin to decline at 32". Is it too much to look up some scientific facts instead of repeating feminist disinformation? It's not quite clear what in the article is supposed to be an indirect quote from the doctors, and what she has added herself. However, the subordinate clause implies that she has added that part herself instead of merely reporting.

What's quite sad is that this quote is from an an article with the promising headline "More Doctors Broach Delicate Topic of Women's Age and Fertility Rate". As it turned out, the goal was to write about a different kind of stupid:
I've had, like, a 42-year-old say, 'Why aren't I getting pregnant?,' " Dr. Auguste says. "I say, 'I'm sorry, it's the science. At 42 you have fewer eggs and older eggs than a 28-year-old. At this point you really need to speak with an infertility specialist.' " Dr. Auguste says some patients get hostile and don't believe her; she usually doesn't see those patients again.
I guess that women lose control and throw a tantrum is just another one of those myths spread by the patriarchy. As a contrast to the harmful information in the article, I was glad to see that at least some of the commenters things as they were. The top comment was by a poster with a female name:

If the hand-wringing feminists on here really want to help women, they should spread the word about fertility and age. I know hard facts are a bit foreign and scary to your ears, but what could be more useful to a woman who thinks she has forever to have a baby?

Some guy chimed in:

There is no woman who at 30 years of age has not had multiple men attempt to court them for marriage. In generations past, women respected such advances and married before they reached 30. Now in urban centers women of our upper classes are deluded -- often through their own sexual escapades with men that would not commit to them -- into thinking that they deserve better. 
The problem is not the absence of worthy men or "career." The problem is that our women are spending too much time partying, taking pole-dancing lessons (yes, really), taking exotic vacations and overall focusing on themselves. 
When most of our mothers were changing our diapers and driving us to elementary school, our finest young women are out drinking and fornicating with men than use them for short-term gratification. It is really shameful. 
Career? Education? Hogwash. For the vast majority of women, it's emulating Sarah Parker and her girlfriends on TV and searching for their own personal George Clooney.

When I hear a 30 year old woman complain about a lack of a partner or read stories about some 35 year old that can't get pregnant, I can't help but think that this is just a variation of the common "I screwed up, now you go fix it" mindset of a generation that has a strong sense of entitlement and no idea of the concept of personal responsibility. Seriously, Virginia, if you're 35 and without a man, it's not society's duty to fix that. You surely had men in your league approaching you, yet none was ever good enough. So, deal with the consequences --- or pray that you'll get some manginas who bought into the "marry a woman your age" propaganda.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!


36 comments:

  1. Don't think young girls at my age even think about kids and families. Some act like kids themselves. It's that sad, but it's just that true.

    Many come here to Shanghai just to party, drink, smoke and fuck, they don't really study anything, and seriously they come here with a "scholarship", knows what that means? Means somebody must pay for them. What a waste!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I read an article by a professional who specializes in that area and he said the same thing.

    He said that these women are literally playing with fire and will have trouble later on in their life with getting pregnant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you have a link to that article? My impression is that this simple truth doesn't get much exposure, and certainly not in mainstream media.

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    2. Sorry buddy it was in a dutch magazine :D

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  3. Aaron

    There are other issues too. As well as the ability to get pregnant men and women should consider the chances of producing a healthy baby. Of course feminists don't like the medical community issuing FACTS about the risks associated with giving birth later. They always obscure the facts and neglect the medical fact that the chances of a HEALTHY BABY DECREASE significant with maternal age.

    Have a look...

    http://www.extendfertility.com/downloads/documents/NEJM_AdvancedMaternalAge_HowOldIsTooOld.pdf

    The risk of chromosomal abnormality, and Down's syndrome increases significantly with maternal age.

    For Downs Syndrome 1/1667 at 20, 1/952 at 30 and 1/378 at 35
    For Chromosomal abnormality 1/526 at 20, 1/385 at 30 and 1/192 at 35

    Call me a crude scientist, but take a look at this..

    CDC figures show that the prevalence of Down's Syndrome has increased 25% from 1983-2003.

    http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsdownsyndrome/

    Obviously news publications are quiet about this, the medical community say nothing on this topic, they wouldn't want to upset those crazy feminists.

    However MEN should understand, as they always have, that a child with a woman over 30 has a much greater chance of being unhealthy or born with a birth defect.

    Cue feminists : - "A man wanting a healthy child, check your privilege!"

    JU





    ReplyDelete
  4. This made me think about male fertility.

    I saw this video some time ago: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/disappearingmale/
    It's about how toxic material in our environment damages the male reproductive system.

    Male fertility declines with age, too. So as a man you should also plan ahead and think about what the right time for getting children is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why wouldn't toxic materials in the environment have an effect on women, too? Of course male fertility declines, too, but it takes a much longer time.

      Delete
    2. There are synthetic chemicals that resemble estrogen. Those chemicals are used in some plastics, detergents, clothes and other products in our home (or even in the air through pollution, etc.). Those estrogen-like substances harm men probably much more than women.

      Do you know how long a man remains really fertile? I've heard there's a certain risk for unhealthy/disabled children when the father is about 40 years old or beyond.

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    3. From everything I've checked it seemed safe to conclude that men have much less biological pressure than women. An age of 40 strikes me as relatively low to assume an increase of certain risks, though.

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  5. Great topic. And one that is completely ignored in modern society.
    It's staggering how clueless both men and women are about this!

    But I often wonder about older women who age well and are still incredibly hot in their late 30s and even 40s.

    Is it possible that some women are more genetically predisposed to staying fertile for significantly longer than others?

    Also do men need to be overly concerned about their fertility past a certain age for conception, even though men enjoy a longer fertility window than women do?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These days it's fashionable to always look for a genetic cause, but let's not forget the effect of lifestyle choices. Partying, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, solarium, sleep deprivation and all the other pastimes of your "best and brightest" surely have an effect on their appearance. Just as a guy can look years younger than he is by living healthily, so can a woman. I think it's not so much that one looks younger than his or her age, but that most people make poor lifestyle choices and therefore look older than they otherwise would.

      Regarding male fertility, there is no need to be overly concerned. However, sperm quality does decline with age. I don't think this is an issue you have to be concerned about since only very few guys think of fathering children in their mid-50s or 60s.

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    2. Lifestyle choices have a major impact on your appearance over the long term. This is one big reason why a lot of people from the eastern side of the world looks younger - the poor lifestyle choices of the west have not yet caught on there, though it slowly is.

      If you go towards towards rural areas from the urban areas of a country, you will see this very clearly - people in rural areas, who generally lead healthier lifestyles, often look much younger.

      I see this regularly when I am estimating the age of a girl. I always tend to underestimate the age of girls from small cities in India, and I always tend to overestimate the ages of British and American girls who visit here.

      Delete
  6. hi aaron,

    a good articel so far. but can you describe what men can do proacrively to avoid such pitfalls?

    what should men nowadays do to get along in this area? do you have an agenda?

    thx

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  7. Since we are discussing demographics here I'm curious are there more single men than women in the west these days? I just pulled up a map that shows that single men between 18 to 29 outnumber the women in most US cites. Is that a problem that us men cannot control? Here's the site if your interested.

    http://jonathansoma.com/singles/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard of that. The obvious consequence is that if you want to enjoy greater success in the dating arena, you should move to where the women are. PUAs of course would advise you to simply "up your game", though. ;)

      Delete
    2. and yet these PUAs all live in major cities where playing the field appears easier

      Delete
  8. Thank you for responding to my comment. All I can say is that this sucks for women, especially those who want to put having a family on hold for their career, schooling, etc.

    Then I think (kinda selfishly: Well, at least I don't have to worry about that as a man. And if I get married at say, 34, if I plan to marry a 28-year old and I could see myself spending the rest of my life with her, I wouldn't care that she wasn't 22. Worst case scenario, we'd adopt if it came down to that.

    But this is something I won't be concerned about for quite some time, as I'm only 22.

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  9. Believe it or not, this also ties into why I love fat bitches. They reach menopause even earlier, and have all kinds of infertility problems (if you even find the pussy) Man, I love it, cause it means I don't have to worry 'bout using no rubber.

    Higher Infertility = Guilt Free Raw Dogging.

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    Replies
    1. Nigel, I love about you that you always have your feet firmly planted on the ground!

      Delete
  10. I see what you're saying, but check this out...

    Infertile women are safer to raw dog.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You seem to have anti consumerist attitude. I appreciate that and I am MGTOW follower because I don't want to pay taxes to feminist supporting goverment.

    In Europe it's quite easy to live off the government unemployment compensation in many countries if you are MGTOW follower.

    How you feel living off the government unemployment compensation works if man follows your Minimal Game advice and meet girls also?

    Lets assume that man is living in simple small apartment and eat simple diet without excessive protein around 1g/kg and mainly staples like rice/potatoes/pasta and drinks water (no alcohol or milk products). He is in extremely good shape from strict exercise regimen (small waist, wide shoulders with small bf percentage) and has above average face.

    The government unemployment compensation is around 800 € in Germany (just to make other readers aware of this) with unemployment benefit+simple apartment+health insurance.

    Thank you for your reply,

    Unemployed MGTOW follower

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you live in Germany? If so, you'll be in for a rude awakening since the government will seriously start to harass you if you don't get a job within a certain amount of time. I think you'll be better off finding a way of arranging yourself with the "system", and there are many viable options.

      If you're young then living a "minimalist" lifestyle and mooching off the government may not be detrimental to your, primarily short term, dating success. However, I would be very impressed if you managed to get a nice girlfriend or wife with this strategy. Lack of money will tremendously limit your options, and it will only get worse the older you get.

      Delete
    2. I am not living in Germany. I have friends who are living with ALG2 and they are quite sophisticated to keep harassment from government in minimum. That is easier in bigger cities and quite difficult in smaller towns.

      Nice girlfriend or wife isn't my personal goal because women rarely share the anti consumerist attitute. Being single and hermit is just fine for me.

      Short term dating success with government unemployment compensation sounds appealing. There is all the time for physical exercise (training at home with bodyweight exercises+dumbbells under the bed and walking/using bicycle.)

      There is also time to look girls constantly because studies or work doesn't take any of government unemployment compensation lifestyle supporters time.

      How is lack of money limiting options assuming that man has above average face and body in perfect shape that Alek Novy is talking about?

      Man is going for dates directly at his place (the way Paul Janka does with 9.8% success rate from numbers) and has all the time to pick up girls. Being fashionable without brand names isn't that expensive neither with some skinny jeans+tight t-shirts.

      Lets ask other question based on your answer. If government unemployment compensation isn't enough with 800 € how much passive income a month would older man who has optimal body+above average face+sense of fashion (nice jeans+tight shirt+nice leather shoes) need in your opinion to keep nice girlfriend/wife assuming he prefers child free lifestyle.

      If the woman isn't happy being in relationship with man who has above average face+perfect body then she seems to be thinking like a prostitute. Man has all that he needs for himself anyway.

      Unemployed MGTOW follower

      Delete
    3. For how long have your friends been doing this? The only way I can see making it work is if you're part of the shadow economy, i.e. you have a way to earn money the old fashioned way, i.e. cash in hand. This isn't risk free either, especially if the source of that income is itself illegal. I don't see how anyone would be able to live off social welfare in Germany in the long run, but feel free to share some details. I don't mind learning a thing or two about living a frugal life.

      Ok, you don't want to have a gf or wife. But let's just assume you keep living such a modest life. How do you think your appeal to women will change over time. Try to imagine you're 45 or 50 and not 20 or 25. Once you're older you won't have easy access to meet women.

      Lack of money means that you'll be screwed if your computer breaks down or you need a new pair of shoes, or you want to travel a bit, or go out and party. Going to clubs isn't free either.

      Also, if you want to pull a girl back to your place, it better be not a complete dump. At this point, lack of resources will rear its ugly head again since you'll most likely live in the outskirts, and those might be areas girls aren't even willing going to. Paul Janka did his "street game" in NYC in lower Manhattan, in one of the most affluent areas of the city. I'm not sure how well this would have worked out had he not had a job.

      In Germany I think you can live rather comfortably on 2.000 Euros/month. This takes into account that you're building a nest egg for the future and stash away some money for unexpected expenses, i.e. a new phone or computer. 2000 Euros will leave you with about 1400 after tax and other deductions. This will allow you to rent a nice place, but nothing extravagant, and you should be able to put a few hundred Euros away each month, too. Child support in Germany is pretty decent. If you can resist the temptation of buying designer baby clothes and luxury baby carriages, you should be able to get buy on government money. Heck, this is the one strategy that seems to work well for people who are unwilling to work: have five children, and live off the government.

      Delete
    4. Friends have been born in the late 1970's and living this way since being adult.

      They eat mostly cottage cheese or German quark for protein. 50g of protein this way cost around 1 euro. Then other calories come from cheap staples like oatmeal, bread, potato, rice and pasta. Multivitamin daily around 0.1 euro and they drink water+eat some frozen vegetables. Not eating out at restaurants monthly budget for food is 100€-200€. Rent is around 450€ with electricity+water. Just clean and simple place without anything extra.

      Clothing is around 50 € monthly average.

      They don't travel because traveling isn't what it is made to be. Traveling is mostly for making money to traveling companies/airline companies. All the hassle that you have to make just for short vacations isn't worth it. If you travel it's better to relocate to new city and then you can live with similar budget.

      From that budget we can see that it's possible to live decently with less than ALG2 800 euros monthly and actually even save modest amount of cash for the things like computer breaks down. Simple laptops aren't expensive anymore neither when your mainly use is reading good blogs like Aaron Sleazy's and writing some e-mails. Partying occasionally couple times a month doesn't break the budget neither when you are not drinking alcohol.

      From government money on children is easy to save also but my friends share philosophy "If someone exists, there is the presence of pain and the presence of pleasure. If no one exists, nothing bad happens and pain is avoided."

      800 € from ALG2 isn't bad when we compare to it to your example of spending around 1200 € after taxes+savings for the future. If the savings were concern you could always work for 6 months and still live with under 800€ per month and save all the extra money that you made while working.

      Since most men don't put effort in the exercise and staying in perfect shape. Confident men in 45's and early 50's will still be interesting options even if they spend only 800€ monthly assuming they are in perfect shape+have above average face and dress decently (nice jeans+tight shirt+leather shoes). Anyway even successful men who are older mostly have lousy wife or girlfriend. If the life gets too miserable there is always suicide option available that is relieving to remember.

      New BMW, designer baby clothes and luxury baby carriages, child and ex-spouse support after divorce remembering that most marriages end in divorces are good reasons to not get a serious relationship (at least if they don't know the teachings of Aaron Sleazy's Minimal Game).

      Unemployed MGTOW follower

      Delete
    5. I already see one big problem with your description: you won't be able to easily relocate if you have no money saved up, and this is exactly the Achilles heel of that plan. First, you won't have much money to spend, and second, you will get trapped in your environment since you lack all flexibility due to not having any savings. These days, you only get welfare money in Germany if you've spent your savings. There is some amount you can keep but that's quite insignificant and may be hardly enough to cover the cost of a new dishwasher if your old one breaks down.

      I don't know how your friends are able to dodge the government but these days they will do their best to not let you enjoy all your free time. This includes forced participation in monthlong seminars on basic skills like using a computer, no matter how knowledgeable you are in this area, or forcing you to work for 1 Euro per hour somewhere if you want to keep your welfare cheques. Heck, they may even prohibit (!) you from moving.

      Instead of trying to game the system, you could just cooperate a little bit and put yourself in a much more comfortable position. From what I've read it can't be fun to live off welfare in Germany with the reforms of the social democrats (SPD) and their "agenda 2010".

      Delete
  12. Nice post as usual. However, while I think your reaction to it makes it clear for many readers, the graph does not seem to be explained in sufficient detail to make it clear for everybody.
    The percentages are probably the percentage of successful attempts at getting pregnant after a year of trying.

    If anybody was to read it as the percentage of successful attempts for a single try/month, they may not grasp the severity of this issue.

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  13. used up former female party girls are just extremely ugly and unattractive by age 30. fertility plays a role in how men choose a partner, but only after another 10 years.

    as a guy on the radio where I live used to say, "don't even call the insurance adjuster. the merchandise is totaled."

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  14. Ageing of the ovaries is the most prominent factor and is part of the normal ageing changes that affect all organs and tissues. Most women have about 300,000 eggs in their ovaries at puberty. For each egg that matures and is released [ovulated] during the menstrual cycle; atleast 500 eggs do not mature and are absorbed by the body.
    Age and Infertility

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  15. What about the data for under 20s, like age 16 and onwards?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why would you want to knock up a 16 year-old?

      Delete
    2. I wonder too. I find it is a weird liking of girls that go to school and aren´t even legally adults. Reminded me of a vid of a 40 yo creep that hit on 16 year olds. Basically his theorethical daughters.
      Krauser PUA.
      He was dissed here back in 2010 but since then I heard nothing.
      Recently went on this blog had a good time. Basically his every second line is sandcastle-like screaming : Fuck you gamma Im alpa. Guy is 40 btw.

      Liked this exchange especially (guy pointed out his delusions ) , check out the 9th comment http://krauserpua.com/2013/09/07/lean-in/

      Any thoughts about destroying another carrer , Sleaz´ ?
      Had been a long time no hear about that, I suspect you get paid racket-money s´ not to touch anybody anymore :)

      Delete
    3. Thanks for the link. It was good for a laugh. I think I've said everything about Krauser I ever wanted to say. There's even a discussion on my forum where he himself joined in and got a beating. But maybe he didn't get why we found it ludicrous to spend the amount of time and money he does to score with some random chicks. I think it takes a special kind of person to pursue "street sarging" for eight hours straight and without any success. Vince Kelvin has been doing that too, if I recall correctly, so maybe it's a trend among aging PUAs. ;)

      Delete
  16. "There is no woman who at 30 years of age has not had multiple men attempt to court them for marriage." - That's not true lol. By the time girls turn 30 almost all of them have been courted by some guy out there, of course, but nowadays it's rarely for the purposes of marriage but rather for random hookups and short term relationships. If girls want to have fun, well surprise, suprrise! So do guys!!! They aren't in any hurry to do the responsible thing.

    Modern age men see marriage as a huge financial responsibility, to be avoided at all costs. It's also the ultimate limitation to their freedom to court other women. So women are courted, but no marriage proposals follow. So these women have to try again and again and again, they date more guys, few of whom want to settle down. By the time these women are in their 30s they are labeled "party ho's" and discarded. And the 35+ men who spent their younger years having fun and playing around the dating scene, instead of doing the responsible thing, more and more have to fall on porn, since as they find out in their late 30s it becomes harder and harder for them to get laid by college age girls.

    In summary, it's both genders who are dancing this tango.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No kidding! That's exactly the case.

      Seems so weird that right in the middle of an otherwise rational discussion, people (including the blog owner) are just BASHING over-30 women for...existing? Not being married? To them? Not having kids? Whores!

      40 is as accurate a figure for declining male fertility (and its consequences) as 35 is for women. The correlation between old sperm and autism is pretty strong.

      Welp, I'm 33 and female, so guess I'm off to trap a man into marriage (and babies if I'm fast!). Wish me luck!

      Delete
    2. What a fabulous comment. It perfectly exemplifies everything I detest about the typical contributions of women to that kind of debate.

      Where did you read that we're "BASHING" over 30-year-olds for existing? You're just making this up, and you add a whole string of other completely unrelated attacks. Setting up one straw man next to the other. I don't care if you are not married, but you should care that at your ripe age you'll find it much more difficult to conceive.

      Positing a five-year age differential between men and women is at best a feminists' wet dream. Pair a 40 year old guy with a 25 year old girl, and he'll have a very good chance getting her pregnant, unlike a 25 year-old guy who, for whatever reason, picks a 40 year-old. I think a mistake types like you make is that you look at older married couples, say a 35 year old woman and a 40 year old guy, and because the woman has a hard time getting pregnant, you assume that the guys is getting infertile too.

      I looked up some recent research regarding the link between increased age of the father (who produces fresh sperm, not old sperm; it's the woman's eggs that age):

      "In a study of more than 100,000 people, along with records about their parents' ages, Avi Reichenberg at King's College London and his colleagues found that 33 out of every 10,000 offspring of men 40 years or older had autism spectrum disorder—a 475% increase compared to offspring of men younger than 30, who fathered afflicted children at a rate of 6 per 10,000"
      http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v14/n11/full/nm1108-1170a.html

      Sure, focus on the percentage and fly into a rage against irresponsible older men wanting to have kids, but looking the numbers themselves --- 33 out of 10,000 --- you'll notice that the risk is rather low.

      Now let's look at older mothers and the risk of their kids having Down syndrome:

      "Regardless of age of the mother, the probability of having a subsequent pregnancy where a child has Down syndrome is about 1%.
      The risk of having a baby with Down syndrome increases with advancing maternal age (e.g. 1 in 910 at age 30, and 1 in 28 at age 45), but where a previous pregnancy has been affected it increases further to about 1 in 200 at age 30 and 1 in 25 at age 45."
      http://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/down.htm

      So, good luck indeed, princess! I think you're being irresponsible for wanting to have kids at your age, though.

      Delete

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