Extract from the The Infertility Trap, by Laureate Professor John Aitken, Scientific Director at Memphasy.
As fertility rates fall in advanced industrialised nations and our populations become smaller and older, it is crucial that we recognise the pressure that young people (men and women) will be under to achieve the levels of productivity needed to buoy up their national economies. Under these all-hands-to-the-pump circumstances, any procreative drive will be pushed into the background as our youngest and finest make their way in an increasingly competitive world. Having babies will be the last thing on their minds and by the time this desire struggles to the surface and breathes oxygen, it will be too late.
A recent survey of the Australian population, conducted in 2021, generated interesting insights into the thoughts of young adults on the questions of marriage and procreation. According to the survey: (i) most people do not think of having children is necessary in order to be fulfilled; (ii) women, particularly younger women, are more likely to think marriage is outdated, with the higher proportion of women (33%) feeling that way compared to men (24%) and (iii) Australian women are having fewer children and having them later in life (Australia Talks National Survey reveals what Australians think about marriage and children; viewed 249/21). In order to counteract these ongoing trends, we have to not only educate the young about the reproductive realities of life, but also engineer a social environment in which having children is facilitated and encouraged. Clearly, we cannot just keep stumbling along the same weary path that we are on.
There may be many aspects to the social adjustments needed to achieve this outcome. We shall certainly need to accelerate our efforts to redefine the workplace in terms of mutual respect and gender equality, if men and women are going to abandon their traditional roles as provider or homemaker and work together to fashion a new future in which men and women share, rather than divide, these roles. No longer is the workplace a male-dominated rumbustious territory where the natural aggression and competitiveness of masculinity holds sway. Similarly, no longer is the home the sole province of women and their natural nurturing ways, dominating the kitchen and leaving the male partner to clean up the cat vomit and take out the rubbish. Released from the chains of gender stereotypes, most professional and recreational activities will be free from gender bias in the future. We shall get used to seeing female engineers and footballers and think nothing of male nurses, dress designers, house husbands and female CEOs. Having and raising a family in the future will be a joint effort requiring equal participation of male and female partners in not only the creation of new life but the establishment of an environment within which that life is cherished and nurtured to maturity.
From a Government perspective, one of the changes these social pressures will encourage is a complete revision of maternity leave and child support schemes. In the future, such arrangements will have to include both male and female partners and possess a level of flexibility that allows both partners to organise their professional and domestic life around their own unique set of circumstances. In a sense, COVID has been helpful in that it has taught us that we can be more productive working from home than we could ever be in a workplace located in the centre of a large metropolis, involving a daily commute of several hours because the young have been squeezed out of inner-city property markets by their cashed-up parents.
As ever, the Scandinavian countries lead the way in terms of provisions of generous social support networks that encourage parents to have children. The allocation of generous compensation rates makes it possible for mothers to take considerable time out of work to raise their children and to return to their previous jobs afterwards, thanks to the provision of affordable public day-care facilities. Most fathers appreciate, and take up, the opportunity to assist in the raising of their offspring and readily engage in the nappy changing, bathing and bottle-feeding routines that dominate childcare in the early years. We also need employers who have an equally generous attitude towards parental leave and will accommodate, if not celebrate, the time their employees take out of their professional lives in order to care for their children. No longer will CVs be scanned to see if there was the odd nanosecond of downtime when the employee was not productive. A happy workplace is a productive workplace. Where the Nordic countries have blazed a trail, we should all follow as our societies become super-aged and the burden of supporting a productive economy falls on the shoulders of the young.
Another social institution ripe for change is the concept of marriage. So many marriages are ending in divorce that the entire concept of a life-long partnership is being abandoned by an increasing proportion of our nation’s youth. The concept has to be modified to reflect twenty-first-century values or it will die. Specifically, it needs to celebrate the diversity of relationships that are possible in enlightened, civilised societies. Every partnership is unique. Each participant brings with him or her their own unique history, knowledge, belief system, sexual orientation, political persuasion, allegiances, aspirations and goals. The uniqueness of each union needs to be recognised in a form that encourages people to participate. When marriage rates fall, fertility rates decline, further exacerbating the infertility problem and increasing the number of single-parent families, many of whom will ultimately become reliant on Government support to survive. Moreover, the progressive erosion of the family as a default social unit has massive implications for the aged-industry. There will be nobody around to look after granny or gran-dad, who will again be dependent on the Government to provide adequate aged-care facilities.
The cost of supporting the aged care sector as well as a growing number of single-parent families is enough to keep any national treasurer up at night, particularly when they consider the taxes they are going to have to impose on a dwindling exhausted workforce to balance the books.
I have neither the knowledge nor the wisdom to determine what a twenty-first-century marriage should look like. However, I do know that this is a healthy conversation to be having. Perhaps pro-natalist policies that offer financial inducements to get married and have children are part of the mix of changes that need to be considered. Certainly, prioritising the encouragement of national fertility makes sense as a means of limiting the impact of uncontrolled population decline and ageing, particularly if the current skilled migration policies fail in the wake of a declining pool of potential immigrants precipitated by COVID.
Extract sourced from the The Infertility Trap, by Laureate Professor John Aitken, Scientific Director at Memphasy. Our Felix™ device is the culmination of our ongoing collaboration with Professor John Aitken, a renowned figure in reproductive biology worldwide. The Felix™ utilises Memphasys’ innovative sperm separation technology, which is now in commercial production and available for purchase in early adopting countries like Japan, Canada, and New Zealand. We are currently conducting clinical studies and preparing regulatory certifications for markets in China and Australia.
We are thrilled to have Professor Aitken as a key partner as we advance our focused business development efforts in the assisted reproduction and fertility market. Together, we aim to create a world-class portfolio of devices, diagnostics, and media products that address crucial issues in human and animal reproduction.