Time marches on

Today I was talking to one of my close friends and she mentioned a statistic that she'd seen somewhere. Apparently once a woman reaches the age of 27, her eggs begin to lose their freshness or something like that. Now before I wrote this, I did a little digging to see if I could find some kind of medical validation to that little factoid but to no avail. Mind you, I only took maybe 10 minutes to actually research it but in that short time frame, I didn't find anything to substantiate this factoid. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, I just couldn't find anything.

However, my research did show me that women are born with a set amount of eggs and as time passes, that number dwindles steadily. This fact did not make things any better. Regardless of how you look at it, women are working against a clock when it comes to the desire to be a mother. Add on to that the fact that as a woman ages, it becomes more and more risky for her to carry a baby to term, I can't help but have some empathy for those women on a mission.

Physiologically it is most advantageous for women and men to procreate while we are in our mid to late 20's because that's when we are physically best able to care for a child. The funny part comes when you consider the psycological and financial ramifications of doing that. Most people that I know who are still in their 20s are not psycologically able to fathom the thought of caring for another human being that's totally dependent on them. True enough plenty of those people have already taken the plunge but I often hear horror stories of demanding schedules and no longer having a life. It just makes me want to run out and make my own baby! (sarcasm, folks)

Then there are the finances. I personally am still working on getting myself to a place where I feel totally comfortable financially. By comfortable, I mean being able to maintain a certain type of lifestyle and allow myself indulgences like travel and the occasional extravagent purchase from time to time. Many of my peers aren't at that comfortable place on their own so I can only imagine if they had kids, who can really reduce that margin of comfort if it isn't really plush. Now I'm not talking bad about those people who do decide to procreate and make little ones because being a parent is one of the hardest and most rewarding things in the world but maybe we should do more to prepare ourselves for parenthood.

As a woman in her late 20s, I am constantly being bombarded with questions about why I haven't "settled down to start a family". And now there are medical facts out there to further substantiate the questioning. I refuse to give in to the pressure. Aside from the fact that I refuse to just settle for any man and become a veritable breeder of little humans, I am by no means ready to take on that responsibility. I shouldn't be judged because I'm not ready either. Besides since my eggs are in such short supply, I should really be selective about who I decide to let sperminate them. My eggs are a precious commodity and should be handled with care with no outside influence.