Alex Jones has urged people to stop judging women who have children in their late 30s as “selfish” in the wake of learning more about the difficulties surrounding fertility for a new documentary.
The TV presenter, 39, recently revealed she and her husband Charlie Thomson are expecting their first child.
Their baby news came after she wrapped filming on BBC documentary Fertility & Me, for which she delved deeply into the little-known facts about conception and the issues that may come with having a baby at an older age.
Alex Jones is pregnant with her first child ( Daniel Leal-Olivas / PA Archive/PA Images)
Writing in RadioTimes she said that, following her marriage to Charlie at the age of 38 last year, she knew “there was every possibility that, like one in seven couples, we’d struggle to conceive”.
She added: “But I found actual hard facts about fertility and conception hard to come by.”
The One Show presenter said it is “frustrating” that, when difficulties in conceiving arise, the blame is often aimed at the woman despite the fact “male fertility falls dramatically after the age of 40″.
She said: “Nobody brings that to the fore. It highlights just how much pressure falls on women.
“I came to realise that the best way to describe conception is ‘Russian roulette’. Women often blame themselves for miscarriage, but in a very high number of cases it’s actually the male sperm that causes the miscarriage.
“It takes two people to have a baby. I feel strongly that it’s very much a case of ‘they’ and ‘we’ as opposed to ‘she’ or ‘I’.”
Charlie & I are very happy to confirm that we're expecting a baby in the new year. Feel so lucky that we're about to become parents. Xx
— Alex Jones (@MissAlexjones) September 2, 2016
Overwhelmed by all your messages of congratulations and love. Such a warm feeling. A huge thank you from us both. Diolch. On cloud 9! Xx
— Alex Jones (@MissAlexjones) September 3, 2016
Jones also expressed her disapproval that women who wait to have children – for whatever reason, be it not having found the right partner or not being able to afford IVF treatment – are labelled “selfish career women”.
She said creating the programme opened her eyes to how “heartbreaking and difficult” the process can be for those who struggle to conceive.
The programme features the TV host having tests to check her fertility, and discover what measures would need to be taken to maximise her ability to conceive with Charlie.
Charlie Thomson and Alex Jones (Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images)
She also looks into new techniques that are giving couples hope of having children, and meets the scientists behind these revolutionary advancements.
Alex Jones – Fertility & Me will air at 10.45pm on Tuesday September 20 on BBC One.
This week’s Radio Times is on sale now.
RadioTimes, on sale now (RadioTimes)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here