About
Aims & Work
Fertility Awareness
Fertility Summit 2016
Modern Families Education Project
Partners
Press
Contact

1. About

The Fertility Education Initiative is a programme of work dedicated to improving knowledge of fertility and reproductive health in the UK.

It was set up in response to a growing debate and concern amongst health and education professionals, about the lack of knowledge about age related decline in fertility in the UK.

In April 2016 a national conference was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) to discuss this issue, with over 200 senior figures from health, education and government.

Fertility Health Summit: Choice not Chance: An overview of the meeting

The Fertility Education Initiative is a special interest group of the British Fertility Society, in partnership with the RCOG and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH), Sex Education Forum, Brook, Sexpression, Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange, Infertility Network UK, Marie Stopes and Public Health England. It is chaired by Professor Jacky Boivin, University of Cardiff and the deputy Chairs are Professor Joyce Harper, University College London and Mr Justin Chu, Birmingham Women’s And Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and University if Birmingham.

Fertility Education Initiative Taskforce

The Fertility Education Initiative is led by a taskforce of senior professionals from health, education, government and business who have been brought together for the first time, to improve knowledge of fertility and reproductive health.

+ Taskforce member list

Professor Adam Balen, Chair, FEI
Professor Joyce Harper, Deputy Chair, Professor of Embryology, IVF & Reproductive Genetics, UCL Institute for Women’s Health
Annette Ashley, Manager of Policy & Public Affairs, RCOG
Professor Jacky Boivin, Professor of Health Psychology, Cardiff
Kate Brian, Regional Organiser, Fertility Network UK
Naomi Courtenay-Luck, Media and Public Relations, RCOG
Jennifer Dhingra, Externals Director, Sexpression
Andrea Duncan, Team leader Screening and Sexual Health, Dept of Health
Dr James Duffy, O&G Trainee, Oxford
Genevieve Edward, Marie Stopes
Lucy Emmerson, Coordinator, Sex Education Forum
Emma Gilgunn-Jones, Director of Media and Public, RCOG
Bola Grace, PhD Researcher, UCL Institute for Women’s Health
Dr Kate Guthrie, Sexual & Reproductive Health, Public Health England
Alison Hadley, Director, Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange
Liz Hawkes, Programme Manager, FEI and Director, Doctor Profile
Joe Hayman, Chief Executive, PHSE Association
Dr Jenny Heathcote, Fellow, Faculty for Sexual and Reproductive Health/Director My Fertility Matters Project UK
Kim Helm, event department, RCOG
Jessica Hepburn, Director of Fertility Fest
Lesley Hoggart, Senior Lecturer, Public Health and Head of Reproduction, Sexualities and Health Research
Fiona Kisby-Littleton, Teacher and Researcher, UCL Institute of Education
Professor Lesley Regan, Vice President Strategic Affairs, RCOG
Kevin McEleny, Hon Secretary, British Fertility Society
Clare Murphy, Director of External Affairs, British Pregnancy Advisory Service
Professor Geeta Narguund, Medical Director of Create Fertility
Sarah Norcross, Director, Progress Educational Trust
Helen O’Neill, Scientist, Embryology, IVF and Reproductive Genetics Group
Michael Reiss, Academic, UCL
Naomi Shephard, Head of Participation and Volunteering, Brook
Professor Judith Stephenson, Professor in Sexual and Reproductive Health, UCL Institute for Women’s Health
Hilary Hodgson, Director My Fertility Matters Project UK
Harry Walker, Policy Manager, Faculty for Sexual and Reproductive Health
Chris Wilkinson, Faculty for Sexual and Reproductive Health

2. Aims & Work

The Fertility Education Initiative is a programme of work with these core aims:

Our aims are to educate children, young adults, parents, adults, teachers and health professionals to:

Understand human fertility

a) Human reproduction
b) Male and female reproductive health

Reproductive life cycle (puberty to menopause)
Fertility and infertility
Signs, symptoms and preventable causes of fertility issues
Planning for a healthy pregnancy

Understand modern families

a) Societal and cultural variations in family building
b) Routes to parenthood

Such as heterosexual, LGBTQ+ and single people with and without fertility issues
Assisted conception techniques for family building
Other routes to parenthood (such as adoption, fostering, step families)
Living a life without children

Understand reproductive technologies

What it can and cannot do and how might it impact on how human beings are made in the future.

To support teachers with learning tools so they can provide education in fertility and pregnancy awareness, to young people at all key stages.
To develop age-appropriate online learning tools for children from all key stages to educate on fertility and pregnancy.
To provide parents with the tools to support fertility and pregnancy awareness for their children.
To ensure that sex and fertility education is a statutory inclusion in the national curriculum, so that all young people will be able to make informed choices about if and when they want to start a family.

The Fertility Education Initiative is focused on delivering education in the following areas:

Changes in the body at puberty
The female menstrual cycle
How to get pregnant and preconception care
How to prevent pregnancy; contraception methods, advantages and disadvantages, where to seek advice
Factors influencing fertility; age, drugs, obesity
STI’s; prevention, symptoms, where to seek advice
Sign-posting to resources for teachers, parents and young people.

3. Fertility Awareness

Key facts about fertility

To put the Fertility Education Initiative programme in context, here is some national UK data:

More women in the UK are now having children over the age of 35 than under the age of 25.
For the first time, over 50% of babies born in the UK are to women over 30.
Fertility declines progressively through life and many women are choosing to delay trying for a family until their mid- to late thirties, when fertility is more rapidly declining.
In the UK 20% of women will never have had a child, which is twice the percentage of their mothers’ generation. There are many complex socio and economic reasons for this.
A national survey of 1000 16-24 year olds (male and female) was commissioned specifically for the Fertility Education Initiative Task Force. The key findings showed worrying gaps in knowledge about fertility and reproductive health:
Around 80% of both sexes believe women’s fertility only starts to decline after the age of 35, and a quarter of boys think women’s fertility starts to decline after the age of 40, compared with 16% of girls.
Two-thirds of those surveyed thought a man’s fertility only starts declining after the age of 40, with a third believing it declined until after 50.

While the decline in fertility is less dramatic for men, fertility rates for both sexes actually decline gradually from the late 20s, and can be affected by genetic and environmental factors such as smoking, obesity and nutrition.

94% of those who did not already have them said they would like to have children in the future.
Of those who said they wanted children in the future, three-quarters of girls (76%) and two-thirds of boys (64%) said they would like to have children before they are 30.
The vast majority of young people – around 9 in 10 – are aware that women are most fertile under the age of 30
Encouragingly, 80% of girls and two-thirds of boys (66%) are aware that age is the number one factor which affects female fertility
Girls tend to consider that a higher number of factors affect their fertility than boys
Two-thirds of girls are now aware that being overweight or underweight affects fertility
40% of girls mistakenly believe that having a miscarriage or being on the contraceptive pill for too long can adversely affect fertility
Substance abuse (drugs, alcohol, steroids) is perceived to be the main factor affecting male fertility – this does affect fertility but age remains the most common factor
Around 50% of young people did not recall seeing, hearing or talking about fertility in the past year

4. Fertility Summit 2016

In April 2016 the Fertility Health Summit: Choice Not Chance was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London. The primary aim of this event was to raise national awareness about the need to improve education about fertility and reproductive health for young people in the UK.

The event included 13 high-level presentations by leading UK and overseas professionals in the field of education, health, government, as well as a representative group of young people. It was the first time such a group has come together to discuss this important subject and we are really grateful to everyone for their contributions on the day.

Fertility Health Summit: Choice not Chance: An overview of the meeting

Media Coverage of the Health Summit

The Fertility Health Summit received some pre-conference media coverage in the Daily Mail which outlined the main messages and was a useful teaser story for the Summit itself. On the day of the Summit the media focused on the findings of the survey of young people which had been commissioned and provided a news hook.

Following the Summit, much of the media coverage focussed on the TV presenter, Alex Jones, speaking at the Summit. Her personal opinions on her own fertility and awareness attracted much attention.

In total:

15 national print articles were published including the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sun and Closer magazine
450 regional articles covering all aspects were published, a Sky radio interview was used throughout the day
Hundreds of tweets went out and the event was ‘trending’ on twitter with infographics showing the survey results being the most popular ‘retweet’
There were 27,000 impressions (how many times the Summit featured in other organisations’ feeds)
18 million adults were reached with messages with a measure of £350k in advertising revenue

There have been follow up stories since the Summit focusing on women’s worries about their fertility and when is the best age to start a family.

5. Modern Families Education Project

Modern Families is a collaboration between Fertility Fest, University College London’s Institute for Women’s Health (Professor Joyce Harper) and Cardiff University’s School of Psychology (Professor Jacky Boivin) It is a central part of the UK’s Fertility Education Initiative, chaired by Professor Adam Balen and supported by the British Fertility Society, Arts Council England, the National and Bush Theatres.

The aim of the project is to use the power of the arts to increase fertility awareness amongst young people. It will help them develop understanding of their own fertility, modern family-making and reproductive science in order to improve their life choices.

The project will be developed and delivered during 2018-19 alongside the Government’s consultation into the future of the PSHE curriculum following the introduction of compulsory Relationship and Sex education. It will be specifically used to call for the development of a more rounded and robust curriculum in relation to fertility that will give young people the best opportunity to create the families they want in the future – with or without children and with or without reproductive science.

6. Partners

The Fertility Education Initiative Task force is led by the British Fertility Society in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health Together with The Sex Education Forum, Brook, Sexpression, Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange, Fertility Network UK, Marie Stopes and Public Health England.

Additional funding has also been given by the following companies:

We are very grateful to these organisations for their continued support.

7. Press

For more information please see https://www.fertilityfest.com/press

Are you able to help?

If your company is interested in becoming a partner organisation to the Fertility Education Initiative Task Force, please do contact Claire Ball at the British Fertility Society here.

Claire Ball
BFS Secretariat
Profile Productions
Email: bfs@profileproductions.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 3725 5849

We would be delighted to hear from any business who is able to help support the programme, through sponsorship or other resources, such as distribution, online marketing, print and distribution.

We are also keen to hear from anyone working in fertility education and reproductive health who is able to share ideas, case studies or other information that might be useful to the programme. Please use the contact details above and we will ensure it is sent to the right person.

8. Contact

For further information about the Fertility Education Initiative please contact:

Claire Ball
BFS Secretariat
Profile Productions
Email: bfs@profileproductions.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 3725 5849