The ‘choices’ facing women who want children | Letters from Dr Geeta Nargund and others

Harriet Minter writes (2 June, theguardian.com), of my campaign to see fertility issues added to the secondary school curriculum, that "the last thing we need is more scaremongering". I am delighted that my call for fertility education has provoked such a widespread response. But this storm of opinion must not cloud focus on the underlying facts, and we need to correct some misconceptions and inaccuracies in media reporting.

Harriet writes: "If you're someone who is relatively fertile, your chances of having a baby in your 30s, or even your 40s, are not significantly lower than they would have been when you were younger." This is inaccurate and references an article by Twenge in The Atlantic that itself misinterprets two important scientific papers. The first by Dunson and colleagues demonstrates significant reductions in a woman's fertility with age. A second study by Rothman and colleagues shows that a couple's fertility peaks around 30 years and at age 40 declines by approximately half with most of this decline attributable to the female partner. Both these complex academic studies clearly confirm the decline in fertility in women (and to a lesser extent men) over the age of 35.