It used to be that when women talked about being able to control their destiny, part of the conversation revolved around contraception. By being able to choose when they were emotionally and financially ready to have a child, women could devote their energies into building solid relationships and careers.
Today, however, that means many women are not prepared to start a family until well into their thirties or early forties. Building a career takes time — time that is also measured by their “biological clock.”
While men don’t have to worry as much about how old they are when they have children, women know that the viability of their eggs has been declining ever since they hit puberty.
“The fertility gender gap is real,” Dr. Sonya Kashyap said at a recent Public Salon at the Vancouver Playhouse.
In evolutionary terms, it made sense that women had children when they were younger and could care for their young, she says. However, “Mother Nature didn’t know we’d be living longer and trying to balance family and careers.”
She believes that at this point in time “there should be no glass ceiling either professionally or personally.”
Dr. Kashyap is the medical director of Genesis Fertility Clinic. She says great strides have been made in technology when it comes to freezing a woman’s eggs. Because eggs contain a lot of water, it used to be difficult to freeze eggs without damaging them. That’s all changed now.
She wants a shift in how women talk about their futures as career women and mothers.
“Egg-freezing education is as important as contraception education,” she said. “We can now freeze eggs for whenever we’re ready — whenever ready means.”
This story first appeared in Healthier You magazine.
