Breeding success

How to boost your fertility

Emily Dunn Protect your reproductive health to give yourself the best chance of conceiving.

It's a boom, baby, as births hit a new record

Jessica Wright Australian women have rewritten the history books by giving birth to 297, 900 babies in 2010, a new national record according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Having a child 'at the right time' is easier said than done

Alison Cassar As a 41-year-old woman who has been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant for more than a year, I have a simple thing to say to the medical profession - wanting to have children is about more than biology.

Doctor told to keep mum - mother knows best when to have a baby

Janice Breen Burns Helen Meyer-Tinning, who gave birth to her first baby at 37 and second at 39, admits she sometimes thinks about how old she will be when her children are 21 or older. The issue is one, however, that she doesn't lose sleep over.

Lucy has a gay dad and a 'tummy mummy'

Neil McMahon Stuart Gent hopes his daughter Lucy will grow up believing herself blessed, a girl conceived and born with love in mind and with the greatest care and deliberation. She was no accident or afterthought.

Is this baby really a crime?

Tim Barlass From March 1, it will be a crime to enter into a commercial surrogacy agreement paying a willing mother at a clinic in India, as Krista and Matt Geary have done with their new daughter Elizabeth. The couple would be in breach of the new NSW Surrogacy Act.

Poor sperm? Blame it on your mother

Nicky Phillips Most men never want to think about their mothers when it comes to matters of the bedroom. But if they encounter problems with sperm production and infertility, they just might have to.

Fast lifestyle, faster sperm

Nicky Phillips It is a finding that could warm many men's hearts: size does not count and a paunchy middle is an advantage. Australian researchers studying how quickly sperm can travel inside the female to reach the egg have shown that having more than one partner is the key to faster sperm, in mice at least.

The miracle of conception is no metaphor for some women

Monica Dux No matter how hard you try or how desperately you want it, whether you get a baby or not is often outside your control.

Fertility breakthrough offers hope for breast cancer survivors

Julie Robotham, Medical Editor Toby Robertson is an only child. He was a toddler when his mother, Cath, received the devastating diagnosis of breast cancer, so the sibling his parents wanted to give him was not to be. Pink Ribbon day is October 26th.

Fertility not affected after taking the pill

Louise Hall Taking the oral contraceptive pill does not affect a woman's ability to fall pregnant after she goes off it, with four in five women falling pregnant within a year, a study has found.

Secondary infertility

Gill South A lot has been written about primary infertility, a medical condition which affects one in six couples of childbearing age in Australia and one in five in New Zealand. But there is another more silent group which doesn't get to voice their anguish as publicly.

Secondary infertility: facing an incomplete family

Gill South Secondary infertility can be as mystifying to the medical experts as to the couples involved.

The cold, hard facts on getting pregnant after 35

Lucinda Schmidt Halle Berry did it at 41. So did Nicole Kidman. Geena Davis had twins at the seemingly over-ripe age of 48. Has the slew of female celebrities giving birth after 35 meant that the rest of us now reason it's easy enough for us as well?

In the nick of time

Jacinta Tynan Over 35 and pregnant? Congratulations - you've beaten the biological clock. But as Jacinta Tynan discovers, friends yet to conceive may not be so thrilled to hear your happy news...

Surrogacy - could you do it?

Amity Dry Sarah Jessica Parker and actor husband Matthew Broderick have welcomed twin baby girls born to a surrogate. EB Blogger Amity Dry discusses the emotional minefield the experience must be for all involved.

Are you leaving it too late?

Louise Hall Fertility experts have called for an urgent public debate on the trend for women to delay motherhood because many of them still do not understand how rapidly fertility declines after the age of 35.

Is the weight worth it?

Kyra Sim “Lose weight” … it’s a prescription you may hear from your doctor or midwife to improve your chances of fertility. They dispense it so easily but is it really that important? Can you afford to ignore it?

News archive

What's the best age to have a baby?

Allison Tait When is the best age to have a baby? Whether it's your teens, 20s, 30s or 40s, each decade brings its own set of challenges and rewards - biological, material, emotional - as these four mothers tell Allison Tait.

Stem-cell injection may increase fertility

Ian Sample Infertile women may one day be given stem-cell injections to repopulate their ovaries with eggs.

Biological clock ticks for men, too

Louise Hall Children born to older fathers perform less well in intelligence tests during infancy and early childhood, research shows, adding to the body of evidence linking paternal age to neuro-developmental disorders in offspring.

Fertility treatment link to rise in defect risk

Nick Miller New research has linked fertility treatment with the increased risk of birth defects including malformed hearts, cleft lips and bowel problems.

Women seek fertility treatment in India

Raekha Prasad India is experiencing an influx of tourists from Europe and Britain to receive fertility treatment. The ads are brazen: 'Healthy young women - superovulated exclusively for you!' The fees are half those of clinics in Britain, even accounting for flights and hotels.

Kiwi sperm quality in decline

AAP The quality of New Zealand men's sperm has halved in two decades - the most dramatic drop of any western country.

The secret life of sperm

Taking sperm to the peak of good health - Naturopath Tracy Wolf has the inside word on what to eat and how to live.

Women raise voice when most fertile

A woman raises the pitch of her voice during her most fertile period of the month in an unconscious boost to her femininity, according to a new study in the British journal Biology Letters.

Study questions fertility choices

Julie Robotham Little Jensen Jance is by all accounts the perfect baby. At two weeks old, his mother reports, he eats well, settles easily and is even allowing her some sleep. Then again, it is possible that after five years of waiting for the child they desperately wanted, Guilia and Michael Jance are very positive new parents.

Men's fertility decreases after 35

Kate Benson It has long been known that a woman's chance of reproducing declines once she hits 35, but now scientists have found that men who have some forms of fertility treatment in their 30s suffer the same fate.

Fertility problems

Conception is not always immediate, in fact for couples not using contraception, only approximately 25% of women will conceive within the first month of trying.

Women's conception difficulties

Approximately one in six couples will have difficulties conceiving. Read more about conception difficulties that affect women.