BPW Australia

BPW Fertility Project

In 2006, BPW South Australia received funding under the Office For Women, Women’s Leadership and Development Programme Grants, to conduct a national project focussed on raising women’s awareness about how their fertility declines with age.

This project aims to devise a program of public education to ensure that women are fully informed of the lifestyle and age related factors that will impinge on their fertility, allowing them to make informed choices about their fertility and family formation.
The core project team is

• Jean Murray, Project Leader – Current BPW International Secretary, SA and national government policy adviser
• Dr Christine Kirby, Expert Advisor – Clinical Director, Repromed (reproductive medicine clinic)
• Sheila Evans – past BPW Australia Secretary and Vice President Internal Policy, experienced counsellor and educator
• Gillian Lewis Coles – past State President of BPW South Australia, government policy adviser with social work experience

BPW SA conducted research in 2004 to inform this project. The project team analysed data on women presenting to Repromed and reviewed the literature and the media on this topic. This has indicated that women and men do not have sufficient access to information about how fertility declines with age when they make family formation decisions. As a consequence many are making decisions that with the wisdom of hindsight and correct information they have indicated they would not have made.

The literature and media reports recognise that women have too often delayed child-bearing in the belief that their fertility extends for longer than it does. Information about fertility can be found in GPs’ rooms and hospital clinics, but healthy women don’t see their doctor often, and may not pick up this information.

Websites on infertility are generally related to IVF clinics and take a medical and curative perspective rather than preventative.

It was determined that accurate information needs to be provided where healthy women gather, tailored to their needs and presented from a non-medical perspective. The project team has considered the needs of a range of audiences, including men and women of various ages and backgrounds.

The Project is now complete and material has been distributed around the country.

Further information and material can be obtained from BPWA on bpwaust@bpw.com.au.