The Fertility Timebomb

Britain is facing an infertility crisis, with the number of couples who experience problems conceiving expected to double within the next 10 years.

A leading fertility expert warned yesterday that, by 2015, one in three couples may need IVF treatment or similar fertility procedures. The low success rates of such treatments means soaring numbers will be left childless. Professor Bill Ledger predicted a looming "infertility timebomb", with thousands of couples forced to go through physically and mentally draining treatment, at a cost of millions of pounds to the NHS each year.

He blamed the soaring rates of fertility problems on modern lifestyle factors such as obesity, women delaying starting a family, falling sperm counts among men and rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, particularly chlamydia. Smoking is also a main factor in infertility in men and women. Professor Ledger, of the University of Sheffield, called for the Government to recognise infertility as a "disease".