Ben Hamilton
November 15th, 2016

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Danes are experts at grounding storks apparently (photo: Pixabay)

One of the more bizarre stories of last year was an analysis reported in November that Danish women called Camilla were statistically the most likely to get pregnant in 2016.

Naturally, we contacted the only person we knew of that name to find out if she at the age of 41 knew of “any big plans in 2016 that might put her in the danger zone”.

Yesterday, we found out she is due to give birth in February!

Reduced fertility an illness
Camilla is one of the lucky ones according to Vidensråd for Forebyggelse (scientific council for prevention), which today has issued a new report, Forebyggelse af nedsat frugtbarhed (prevention of reduced fertility), advising Danish women on how to avoid infertility.

Vidensråd for Forebyggelse cites a number of alarming statistics: reduced fertility is an “illness”, 40 percent of young men would struggle to or cannot father children due to their low sperm counts, and 10 percent of women miss out on children (altogether or their optimum number) due to infertility.

Its 12 tips for reducing fertility are listed below.

Worrying ignorance
“Reduced fertility is not just something to be treated – we must also become better at preventing it,” said Henriette Svarre Nielsen, a consultant at Rigshospitalet’s fertility clinic who was one of the lead authors of the report.

“We are seeing a worrying ignorance among many couples about their chances of becoming pregnant. They tend to be experts about birth control, but are clueless how rapidly fertility declines with age.”