After her first miscarriage at 37, Selvaratnam was told that she had plenty of time, but the numbers don’t lie. Forty percent of women over 40 will miscarry and as they age, women’s reserve of eggs drops to as low as 9000 (compared to over 400,000 when menstruation first starts).

“It’s a terrible mistake that gynecologists make,” said Whelan. “They don’t want to be intrusive. And doctors give them bad advice,” advising women to stay on a fertility drugs for a longer period than they should, or telling them to wait it out and keep trying naturally when they are already in their mid 30s.

“Gynecologists are not infertility specialists,” said Whelan. “They are like Marcus Welby.”

And part of the reason that women wait so long is that they falsely believe that IVF is the magic cure all for infertility.