A new study suggests that health problems that occur early in life are linked to childlessness later in life.
Researchers from Harvard and Oxford University found that behavioral health problems – such as alcoholism and schizophrenia – had the greatest impact on childlessness among men diagnosed in their early 20s.
Women were most likely to be childless due to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes when diagnosed in their early 20s.
The long list of 74 different medical conditions that increase the likelihood that a man or woman will become childless later in life adds to the variety of factors that have driven U.S. birth rates into freefall, including financial pressures and professional goals for prosecution.
The diagnoses with the greatest impact on whether someone had a child later in life included being diagnosed with birth defects and other disorders at birth, as well as mental health problems and nervous system disorders such as MS and juvenile arthritis.
People from Sweden and Finland participated in the study. The reasons for involuntary childlessness were researched, that is, that people wanted to start a family, but it was not primarily due to psychological disorders and metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
The chart above shows the 74 diseases that have been shown to have the most statistically significant association with childlessness later in life. In many cases, the importance for one gender was higher than the other
Involuntary childlessness is a collective term that covers a wide area. A person can become involuntarily childless because they struggle with infertility or because an underlying medical condition, such as blood clots or heart disease, makes it unsafe to get pregnant or have a child.
A behavioral disorder can also cause someone to become involuntarily childless if they know that the underlying psychological problem can be passed on to their child, or if the disorder is so severe that they cannot care for a child.
Of the 74 illnesses associated with mostly involuntary childlessness, more than half were behavioral disorders and disabilities such as schizophrenia, cerebral palsy, alcohol and drug addiction, and antisocial personality disorder.
Other non-mental illnesses also associated with increased childlessness include high blood pressure, blood clotting disorders, vaginal infections and lack of regular menstruation.
Researchers from Harvard University, the University of Helsinki and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden included 2.5 million subjects from Finland and Sweden.
They examined data from 1.4 million women – born between 1956 and 1973 – and 1.1 million men – born between 1956 and 1968.
Women between the ages of 16 and 20 when they were diagnosed with obesity, considered one of the most serious public health problems in the United States, were more likely to be childless than women who gave birth at a young age.
In general, the strongest association with childlessness was among women when the disease was first diagnosed between the ages of 21 and 25.
Most research into the reasons for childlessness has focused on women. However, because the researchers focused on 71,524 full-sister and 77,622 full-brother pairs who had differences in their childlessness status, they were able to identify differences between the sexes.
Diabetes-related diseases and birth defects had a stronger association with women
Schizophrenia and acute alcohol poisoning were more strongly associated with childlessness in men
Because of this focus on both women and men, the researchers found that mental health problems had the greatest impact in men, but metabolic and endocrine problems such as diabetes had a greater impact on childlessness rates in women.
Dr. Andrea Ganna, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), said: “By evaluating the role of various early-life diseases in childlessness in 2.5 million people in Finland and Sweden, this study paves the way for better outcomes Understanding.” “Illness contributes to involuntary childlessness and requires better public health interventions.”
A quarter of the 1.1 million men surveyed were childless, compared to nearly 17 percent of the 1.4 million women.
For men, the impact of diseases on childlessness was greatest when the diseases were diagnosed between the ages of 26 and 30.
Dr Aoxing Liu, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Helsinki, said: “Several factors are driving an increase in childlessness worldwide, with delayed parenthood being a key factor that can increase the risk of involuntary childlessness.”
The results were published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
US population growth is slowing as more women give up children and infertility rates rise worldwide, not just in the United States.
Data show that the number of births in America has been declining for years and has fallen by 22 percent nationally since 2007. The downward trend is prompting warnings that the US is now on an irreversible path to economic decline.
On average, men now have their first child at the age of 26.4, and women give birth to their first child at the age of 23.7. Both have increased dramatically over the past twenty years
The number of American women with at least one child dropped to just 52.1 percent, while the number of men dropped to 39.7 percent in 2019.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about one in five women — 19 percent — are unable to conceive after a year of trying. In addition, more than a quarter of women in this group have difficulty conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term.
More and more women are also choosing to delay childhood and focus on their careers and building financial stability.
The average age of new mothers in America has now risen from 21 to 26 years old. The average age of fathers rose from 27 to 31 years.
A 2020 survey found that 60 percent of respondents said they were delaying pregnancy because they didn’t have enough money, and more than half said they wanted to earn a higher salary first.
At the same time, three out of five Millennials were willing to postpone milestones in their lives until they reached a certain job title or career level.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
