Schools should not only educate students about contraception but also teach them how to get pregnant when they are ready to because several women are leaving family planning for when it is too late, a Maltese doctor specialised in reproductive medicine is urging.
“Most young women are taught about how not to get pregnant but few are told that age plays a major factor in getting pregnant when they are ready to,” Christine Schembri Deguara told Times of Malta.
“Even fewer are warned that they should get a fertility health check-up earlier rather than later, just like they would check their thyroid or any other organ.”
Schembri Deguara, who has just moved to Malta from the UK, where she was an NHS consultant, is one of the first Maltese doctors to specialise in reproductive medicine.
Her comments come days after the government announced it was once again reviewing Malta’s sexual health policy because the research it was based on was 12 years old.
Malta’s current policy, which was published in 2010 and had taken around a decade to draft, was “outdated the day it came out”, the then-head of the GU clinic had said in 2014. Yet, it remains in use seven years later.
Earlier this year, Malta’s fertility rate was flagged as the lowest in the EU.
According to Eurostat, 1.14 live births per woman were recorded here in 2019. At the other end of the spectrum, France recorded 1.86 births.
As in the UK, where the fertility rate is down to 1.58, women in Malta are increasingly looking into starting their own family in their mid to late 30s, which, from a biological perspective, is not the best time to do so, Schembri Deguara said.
So, what can women do?
“If you’re not ready to start a family in your 20s or early 30s, start off by getting your fertility checked,” she said.
“All it takes is a quick scan and blood test. Malta’s low fertility rate is concerning and, if a woman is found to have a fertility issue, it should be treated like any other medical condition to help avoid future physical and psychological distress.
“They can then look into egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation). The younger they are when storing eggs, the less the chances of genetic abnormalities once they are ready to get pregnant.
“If they store them when they’re under 35, the more likely they would have a normal pregnancy no matter when they use them,” she added.
Storing eggs is also cheaper and less time consuming than going through IVF cycles later in life. However, women in Malta can only use the frozen eggs within a limited time and, just like in the UK, legislators should consider extending the timeframe, she contended.
“But we have to start by raising awareness. We need to give women the knowledge to make the choice. Not many are sat down and told the hard facts,” Schembri Deguara said.