What if we stopped talking about falling birth rates, and started talking about the fertility gap instead? Fertility rates are not always the result of free choice. Even in the most advanced, liberal countries, we're still far from a full reproductive agency. And demographic anxiety blurs our focus from the true crisis – meeting people’s family aspirations. We should, instead, start taking into account the many barriers that prevent people from starting a family.

When are you going to have kids? Not everyone who doesn't have children is doing so by choice; one in six struggle with infertility

Procedures to combat infertility have allowed millions of people to become parents. They are not a solution to the fertility gap, though.

When it comes to having children, there is a key factor that differentiates women from men: the biological clock.