NHS Choices - reply from the NHS information website

In reply to the letter to the NHS Choices Team in the UK, here is what was received on 18 August 2010:

Thanks for your recent email on NHS Choices fertility content. We aim with this content to provide a balanced and useful introduction to fertility and issues around it.

The fertility content in Live Well is due to be reviewed soon, and I certainly will be mindful of your view that we could do more to highlight the fact that fertility declines with age.

It is not, however, in the power of us at NHS Choices to tell GPs how to practice, so we won't be able to ensure that GPs talk to women about this issue when prescribing the pill.

Thanks for reading NHS Choices.

Kind Regards

NHS Choices Team

AND THE REPLY TO THEM:

Thank you for the reply. Yes the point is to advice people as to how fertility declines with age, but also of the issues affecting fertility that can arise - e.g. endometriosis, polyps, PCOS etc - these can occur earlier and women are very unaware that such conditions exist unless they have had problems or start to try for a family.

Education of all fertility issues is key. Not just addressing infertility when it is already a problem but upfront prevention and detection. Early awareness is key to mitigating the risk and managing problems in an effective manner.