Women, this one is for you.
At 34 you are screaming towards the edge faster than you'd care to acknowledge.
At 36 biology has pushed you over and you are in the scary free fall down.
At 35 you're on the precipice staring wildly out into the daunting, potential infertile unknown. You are on the egg cliff.
Open any women's magazine and there will be an article about fertility, careers and babies. It is no longer about "having it all," it is now about "timing it all."
Study, work, baby, work.
Work, baby, study, work.
Baby, study, work, work.
Study, work, study, work.
Work, work, work, work.
For each of us it looks a little different however one thing is the same, we all eventually hit the egg cliff.
But why is this such a great concern now? Hasn't it always been there?
Biologically speaking, yes. Over the last 100 years women's fertility has been similar. We hit our peak fertility between 23 - 31, in our 20s it starts to decline, after 30 it starts to decline more, and after 35 the decline accelerates. Hello egg cliff.
What has changed is the increasing number of women looking to have their first child at the age of 35. As we try to time it "all", the egg cliff is becoming a greater concern.
I recently discovered societal concern about this topic had kicked it up a gear.
We were having dinner with our friend, he has two daughters aged 29 and 30. Our friend had attended another dinner party, where a father with daughters was advising our friend, to go home and tell his daughters to freeze their eggs. Men in their 50s advising daughters in the late 20s early 30s to freeze their eggs - this is getting real.
Egg freezing is being hailed as the parachute for women approaching the egg cliff. I am not so sure.
Anyone interested in egg freezing needs to watch and read this article from Time magazine. It explores the topic in great detail.
I am all for women going to whatever lengths they need to in order to have a child. However I am not for companies profiteering from this highly vulnerable challenge.
It concerns me women are being sold a small percentage of hope, for large costs financially, emotionally, and physically.
As a 34-year-old woman fast approaching 35, I feel not only biology at my back, but also society and life. Pressure to defy the egg cliff coming from all angles. I don't yet have children and I am all too aware that I am at that critical age.
There are women having first children naturally after the age of 35. It isn't medically and biologically ideal, but it does happen. In contrast there are also women finding themselves in their early 30s unable to fall pregnant naturally.
In the reproductive stakes, each of us will experience something different due to health and life circumstances. One thing is for sure though, we will all stand on the cliff's edge.
Whether you jump with a parachute - that may or may not be reliable, or free fall wildly to the bottom, we all end up dusting ourselves off to face another day.