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Get With The Program, Uterus!

The female human biological clock is outdated. It inhibits procreation for modern human females and needs to be reset.

Human females are physically at peak child-bearing age in their late teens and very early twenties; that is, around ages 15-22. During this time, it is very easy to get pregnant and very easy to bear children. Our bodies bounce back faster; the weight comes off, there are less complications, and less chance of scarring. Unfortunately for us, mentally and societally we are not ready to be mothers at this age. Most 15-22 year olds are too immature to care for and provide for children. Most of them are also still in school, and have not yet started the experiences which will grow them into adulthood: college, a real job, living out from under the assistance of their parents. Back when the biological clock was set, a 15 year old could reasonably expect to be married and provided for by this age. These days, a 15 year old is still 6-15 years away from being married and cannot expect that she will ever be provided for.

Even during the off-peak but still safe time for having children, the human female is in most circumstances unable to do so. This time period is from about 22-30. Most women marry at about 24-26. This is the reasonable beginning point for considering children, and most are unwilling to have children until this happens. A lot of women, however, are expected to establish a career that makes them financially able to have children before they do so. A lot of women expect/ are expected to purchase a home before having children. By the time a woman gets married at 25, reaches a success level at work after college by about 27-28, and saves enough to purchase a home, she could be 30 years old. That is pushing it in terms of biological clock.

By age 28-30, the average age of a college-educated woman to bear her first child, things have really started to slow down. She’s not as fertile, and physically not as able to carry a child. The body at this point, because of the biological clock, is starting to think, “Well, we’ve missed our opportunity and I guess we’re not going to have a child.” Pregnancy complications start to become a reality, because of age. And think of if she wants to have multiple children! If she has her first child at 29 and one child every two years until she has three children, then her third child isn’t born until 34. That is, if she can even manage to get pregnant when she wants to at that age! At 34 we’re talking very high risk for genetic deformity and the pregnancy being fairly dangerous.

What if a woman has waited to begin her family until later, because she didn’t meet her husband until later due to trying to establish a career, or because she went to grad school? What if she doesn’t start her family until 30 or 32? I mean, this age is very young relative to how long people live, but from a biological clock standpoint she’s late, middle-aged.

Reform is obviously needed. The biological clock needs to be reset because of the changes in society that have occurred. I propose that peak fertility and ability to carry a child be changed from 15-22 to 25-30. I further propose that it is no longer a “danger zone” to bear a child after 30. I propose that high risk does not set in at 34, but at 40. In this way, our biological clocks will no longer be out of sync from what we and society expect of ourselves.

posted by Jen @ 1/30/2006 08:21:00 AM