According to The National Cancer Institute: Women without children may have a higher risk of ovarian cancers. Endometrial cancers are more common in women without children. There may be a connection to uterine tumors.
Women without children have also been found to have an increased risk of breast cancer, and increased mortality from uterine, ovarian and cervical cancer when compared to women with children. Moreover, the fertility declines with the advanced age at first childbearing.
It's OK to not want kids. It's OK if you don't want to be a parent, and there's nothing wrong with you if that's the case. It's also OK to not know yet whether you want to have kids. One thing's for sure though: Feeling pressured and obsessing over what everyone else wants isn't going to help you make your decision.
Without the responsibilities of raising children, individuals have the freedom to pursue their passions, hobbies, and travel without the constraints of parenthood. This allows for greater flexibility in lifestyle choices and the ability to focus on personal growth.
The predominant takeaway from interviewing experts is that not having children is a choice couples make that doesn't prevent them from being happy, or even leaving a legacy. Most childless couples compensate by developing strong friendships and networks.
The decision to have children is personal, and should not be taken lightly. So many people feel like they have to have kids because “it's just what you do.” There is always the chance that you will regret not having children. Having children, just in case, is a lot of work and responsibility.
The major disadvantages are lack of companionship/being alone/loneliness, lack of support and care when older, and missing the experience of parenthood.
A study from Princeton University and Stony Brook University found that parents and nonparents have similar levels of life satisfaction, but parents experienced both more daily joy and more daily stress than nonparents. "Life without children is simply much more stable," Glass says.
If you don't have a maternal urge to start a family, that's completely fine too. If you want to have a baby but can't do it right now, don't let the anxiety force you into making bad decisions that will seriously affect other areas of your life.
A 2012 study of 21,000 childless couples undergoing fertility treatment found that over a nine-year period, the ones who eventually had a child–biologically or through adoption–had a risk of death from any cause one-fourth that of those who remained childless.
Reach out to family and friends regularly to help cope with loneliness and increase your sense of community. Having people to talk to who have also struggled with their decision to not have children can be helpful. You may also consider joining a support group.
Some people feel they cannot afford it. Health/medical reasons. This is one of the top reasons people decide not to have children—a risk to their own health and well-being, or inability to conceive. Other caretaking responsibilities and/or other children in their lives.
Proponents of childfreedom posit that choosing not to have children is no more or less selfish than choosing to have children. Choosing to have children may be the more selfish choice, especially when poor parenting risks creating many long term problems for both the children themselves and society at large.
Nulligravida (never pregnant), primigravida (first-time pregnant), multigravida (many pregnancies)
Nulliparous is a medical term that describes a female who has never given birth to a live baby.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that more adults report they do not want to have children — ever. About 44% of people ages 18 to 49 report it's unlikely or “not too likely” that they'll have children.
While married couples with children were the majority decades ago, now nearly 57 percent of U.S. households are childless. In 2012, about 29 percent included childless married couples and nearly 28 percent included people living alone.
Having a child certainly can enhance your purpose in life, but don't look at it as a way to instantly generate a purpose that motivates you to do things. If you lose that motivation, then there's a child's life and wellbeing on the line. Make sure you have a solid foundation before you even think about having children.
The idea of bringing another human into the world and the joy of seeing that person go through life is another powerful reason why couples want to have a child. Parents want to see their child grow up and become a productive member of society.
The researchers found that women who had live births had telomeres that were an average of 4.2 percent shorter than their counterparts with no children. This equates to around 11 years of accelerated cellular aging, said Anna Pollack, an epidemiologist at George Mason University and the lead researcher of the study.
In the first year, childless couples were more than three times as likely to get divorced as couples who had a baby. After that, the 'divorce risk' curve flattened out, and after 12 years the researchers could no longer see a significant difference between couples who had babies and those who did not.
Babies born to older mothers have a higher risk of certain chromosomal conditions, such as Down syndrome. The risk of pregnancy loss is higher. The risk of miscarriage and stillbirth increases with age. This may be because of preexisting medical conditions or because of chromosomal conditions in the baby.