An expert has said that girls need to be educated about fertility when they are nine or 10 years old. The Telegraph reports that Professor Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, has said that they need to be informed as early as possible and that schools should take the lead. He believes that too many girls are ignorant to the factors that can affect fertility as well as the risks of leaving it too late to start a family. He said:

"We need to be educating and informing young people much more about fertility. "The messages have to be upbeat – we should be starting this, pre-puberty around the age of nine or 10, when they are mature enough to start understanding the issues. "The key things that need to be part of this conversation are about the need for a healthy diet, a healthy body weight, doing enough exercise and most importantly not smoking."

Professor Balen stressed that it is important not to “dilute the message” in terms of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but that school pupils need to plan for their futures.