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• Thursday, April 6, 2006 07:54 AM

  Two things

  First, a response to the inevitable chorus of voices that express vitriolic hatred of anything in the Life section -- please stop reading these articles, and stop posting letters about them. We get it already -- you all think that any essay examining one's innermost struggles over life's inevitable problems is shallow, navel-gazing, whiny, and reeks of upper-class privilege. Personally, I love reading these articles and being exposed to people's various perspectives, even if I don't agree with them -- Salon, keep 'em coming.

  Second, I am consistently shocked that the news about biological realities has not been disseminated more widely. To the extent that this sounds like right-wing scare-tactic propaganda, I apologize, as I am the furthest thing from that, but: a woman's fertility declines sharply after age 35, and has begun declining after age 27. This does not mean that many, many, many people don't have children in their late 30s and into their 40s (hell, my own grandmother had my father at 47), but it is the case that most existing infertility problems are exacerbated by age. Plus, after age 35, IVF, should one need it, is far less likely to be successful. Somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 10 couples in this country will struggle with fertility issues. Many of these issues are treatable, but the likelihood of eventual success is greater the earlier you discover the issues and begin treatment. Obviously people should not necessarily rearrange their lives according to the biological clock. But it might be a good idea to give some thought early on to whether having a biological child or children is a very important goal, and if it is, to work toward it. Many infertile couples have started out thinking that deciding whether they wanted children was the biggest hurdle they would face and been unpleasantly surprised to find out that having a baby is not as easy as they anticipated. It is an unfortunate reality that waiting until the mid- to late 30s can make it even harder.

  —msmiranda Read msmiranda's other letters
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