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Fertility

30th Oct 2017

Media creates “highly damaging” misconceptions about age and fertility

What's a girl to do?

Louise Carroll

Chrissy Teigen has just given birth to her second child

A new study reveals popular media may cause women to be misled when it comes to age and our ability to become pregnant.

The New York University of Medicine looked at 416 issues of Cosmopolitan, People Magazine and Us Weekly from the years 2010 to 2014.

The popular magazines contained many articles with well-known and famous women, where their children would also be mentioned. Out of 240 celebrity faces, the majority (56 percent) were aged 35-years or over.

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Seven women who were over the age of 44, said they were pregnant or had had a child with no mention of fertility issues or whether they were used or needed.

The study claimed articles like these “downplay the impact of age on fertility” and are contributing to the popularity of pregnancy at an ‘advanced maternal age’ as many of these older celebs do not disclose how difficult is may or may not have been to conceive.

Famous mamas who we know have been open about how arduous it was to become pregnant include actress Nicole Kidman, mum Chrissy Teigen, singer Celine Dion, Khloe Kardashian and Sarah Jessica Parker.