EP 125: Professor Joyce Harper explains the Fertility Education Initiative

Professor Joyce Harper wants more dialogue to be happening around fertility, and joined me to explained a new coalition of leading doctors, fertility experts and campaigners which is on a mission to shift the education on sex education to include fertility education in British schools.

Professor Joyce Harper

Professor Joyce Harper wants more dialogue to be happening around fertility, and joined me to explained a new coalition of leading doctors, fertility experts and campaigners which is on a mission to shift the education on sex education to include fertility education in British schools. Personally Joyce hopes that by 2020 fertility education is embedded in schools nationally which I really do hope this project achieves.

Working with a range of organisations including those working in sex education the group got together and brainstormed how best to make this happen. The result has just happened in a week long pilot at The National Theatre in London, working with artists and young adults aged 16 – 21 to try and see whether it is a good idea to use the arts to teach fertility education.

You may have heard previous episodes I’ve shared with the awesome author, fertility warrior and artistic director Jessica Hepburn about her event Fertility Fest

It launched in 2016 and is back for 2018 and I can’t wait to be a part of it. You can view the amazing schedule here

Joyce got to witness first hand from the young audience that they want to know and understand their own fertility journey in the future, with some facts and some nuts and bolts and science around fertility. They also want stories and time for discussion.

Joyce explains about her vision, her fertility journey and what she hopes will happen as the Fertility Education Initiative gains popularity.

We also discuss egg freezing and mental health issues related to infertility. Joyce is writing a paper about what she experienced from this first phase of the Modern Families art project and I hope we get to talk to her more about it once it’s published.

To find out more about the FEI click here

To find out more about Joyce click here

You can also follow her on twitter here

Looking forward to taking part in the @wowtweetUK #wowldn tomorrow. We will be talking about fertility education. With the global increase in maternal age at first birth – we need to talk about female fertility decline. With @JessicaPursuit pic.twitter.com/AcNo4mrD6Y

— Joyce Harper (@ProfJoyceHarper) March 10, 2018