The hands of the biological clock are going faster and faster, and those who are 29 years old should hurry up, because the fertility rate decreases after that age. This is the message that the French Government has sent to ‘young people’ who are not yet thinking about having children. The national plan against infertility promised by Macron two years ago is already underway, affecting more than three million French people.
The Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, denied that the letter represents a measure of pressure, if not more of awareness. “The role of politics is not to say if you should have children or at what age; what you have to avoid is to keep hearing ‘if only I had known,'” Rist explained, proposing preserving eggs and sperm for future use.
Birth data speaks
A few weeks ago, the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) revealed that, for the first time since the Second World War, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, with 645,000 babies and 651,000 deaths. This trend, which most European countries are experiencing, shows how French women have an average of 1.56 children.
In Spain the data is even more striking, since, according to the INE, the average number of children in 2024 was approximately 1.10 children per woman. To put it in context, this value is well below the generational replacement level, located around 2.1 children per woman. In fact, the most alarming fact is that in 1960, European citizens represented 13.5% of humanity, while the forecast is that in 2070 Europeans will only be 3.7% of the global population.
While our country registers one of the lowest levels of fertility in the EU, France, although also in decline, has maintained relatively higher rates than its western neighbors. However, its Ministry of Health has not hesitated to launch a campaign to encourage them to learn about fertility, reproduction options and egg freezing opportunities. Among the unprecedented measures is sending letters by mail to all 29-year-olds to remind them that their “biological clocks do not forgive.”
Demographic rearmament
When Emmanuel Macron announced the series of measures in 2024, he did so in warlike language. “This is a great plan to fight against this scourge, to allow this demographic rearmament,” declared the French prime minister. Furthermore, he insisted that “France will also be stronger if its birth rate increases. Until recently, we were a country in which this was its strength when we compared ourselves with our neighbors.”
The plan, whose budget has not yet been specified, pivots on three elements: more awareness, better diagnoses and greater investment in assisted reproduction systems and fertility treatments. The initiative is part of a 16-point plan to combat the drop in birth rates and infertility, which affects approximately one in eight couples according to official estimates. France chose the threshold of 29 years because it is the legal age from which women can freeze their eggs without the need for medical justification, and the letter also recalls that this process is covered by social security for certain age ranges.
Many people have been in favor of the measure, although several experts argue that sending reminders about “biology” does not reduce the real barriers that many people face in starting a family, such as job insecurity, high housing costs or difficulties in reconciling work and family.
