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American Morning

Fertility Doctors Launch New Fertility Campaign

Aired September 04, 2001 - 10:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, now to another health matter involving younger people, particularly women. It is the ticking of the proverbial biological clock. Apparently the sound isn't quite enough to make some people wake up and take notice, so a group of fertility doctors is sounding the alarm for us.

And joining me to talk more about this new fertility campaign is Sean Tipton, a spokesman of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Sean, give us the bad news. What happens to the fertility rates of women in their '30s? Once they hit 35 I understand things really change.

SEAN TIPTON, SOCIETY FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE: Well, that's correct. Once women hit the age of 35 their fertility begins to decline at about the rate of five percent a year or so. And what we're trying to do is make people aware of a number of factors that can impact their fertility and steps that individuals can take to protect their own fertility so they can protect their ability to have children.

MCEDWARDS: Well, describe your campaign and tell us what tips it offers.

TIPTON: Well, we're launching today a series of advertisements, posters on buses in three cities, in New York and Chicago and Seattle, and we hope to expand that in the future. But there are four factors that we're making people aware of. Age, as you mentioned, is one of them. Also, smoking. Everybody knows smoking is bad for you. Not everybody recognizes the tremendous impact it can have on your reproductive system. Sexually transmitted infections, again, everybody knows they're bad, but diseases such as chlamydia can really have an impact on fertility. And body weight. As the last piece was indicating, either being too thin or too heavy can be bad for your systems, including your reproductive system.

MCEDWARDS: All right, so some tips there, obviously, for women and men, I suppose. We're actually showing some of them that are available on your Web site, protectyourfertility.

TIPTON: Right.

MCEDWARDS: But I wonder if you're concerned at all about scaring people a little bit.

TIPTON: Well, I guess we have confidence that given proper information, people will be better able to make choices that are appropriate for themselves. And I think that we want to get the information out there because our member physicians are reporting that as they treat older women sometimes, they often hear I didn't understand the problem, no one ever told me. I think many believe that women have good reproductive capacity up until menopause and, in fact, it begins to diminish before that.

MCEDWARDS: Well, I guess that's what's so interesting about it, because I think a lot of women have heard throughout their '20s and their early '30s from their doctors it's OK, you can wait. I mean this is the new era of medicine.

TIPTON: Well, in fact, we do want to have -- change the conversations a little bit that physicians and their female patients have. But it's also important to note while biologically this problem relates primarily to women, it's a problem for all of us. We're not going to take care of the problem unless we have discussions with men and unless we have some broader social discussions. And we're hoping that this campaign will help trigger some of those conversations.

MCEDWARDS: Well, what about men? Do they actually have a biological clock, as well?

TIPTON: Well, while the testosterone levels and to some degree sperm counts can decline with age, because men manufacture sperm constantly and women are born with all the eggs they're ever going to have, age is not nearly as important a factor on the male side of the equation.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Sean Tipton, thanks very much. And that campaign kicks off today. Appreciate your time this morning.

TIPTON: You're welcome.

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