RANDOM TOPIC (PART 1) _ ADVANCED
From articles to essays
ARTICLE 1
Why So Many Women Are Waiting Longer to Have Kids
BY JAMIE DUCHARME
In 1970, the average woman in the U.S. had her first baby at around 21 years old. That’s hard to
imagine now: new federal data published in April show that in 2022, the average first-time mother was
a little older than 27—a record high for the country, and a sign of a major demographic change.
This shift has been underway for years. Teenagers and women in their early 20s are having fewer kids,
while the opposite is happening among older age groups. In 2022, for the seventh year in a row, the
birth rate among U.S. women in their early 30s was higher than the rate among those in their late 20s.
Perhaps even more notably, the number of babies born to women 40 and older, while still low overall,
rose considerably from 2021 to 2022: up 6% among women ages 40 to 44 and 12% among those older
than 45.
Dr. Florencia Polite, chief of general obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania’s
Perelman School of Medicine, says those data track with what she sees in the clinic: U.S. parents are
getting older. “This is the first time I’ve had three patients who are pregnant in their 50s,” she says.
The foundation for this trend was laid in the 1960s, when the birth control pill came onto the scene and
gave women unprecedented control over their fertility, says Aurélie Athan, a clinical psychologist who
researches the psychology of motherhood and reproductive identity at Columbia University's Teachers
College. In the decades since, it has become increasingly common for people to have children later in
life for a range of reasons, including concerns about finances and child care, waiting longer to get
married or find a partner, and prioritizing education, career, or leisure time during young adulthood.
The decision to stay child-free has also become less stigmatized, Athan notes, and some data suggest
more people are taking that route.
“Women are having a pregnant pause,” Athan says. “They’re really taking time to say, ‘Do I want to do
this?’
It’s not just women. Research suggests many young men are also thinking deeply about when and
whether to have kids, says Karen Guzzo, a family demographer at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
But waiting doesn’t always mean people aren’t enthusiastic about eventually having children. Guzzo
found in a 2023 study that it's still far more common for people to want children than to plan to stay
child-free, and that most prospective parents want more than one baby. What’s different from decades
past, Guzzo says, is that people are increasingly pushing back the ages at which they have those kids,
often into their 30s and beyond.
That can be a gamble. In a 2018 New York Times survey, about 25% of respondents said they had or
expected to have fewer kids than they originally wanted, often because they couldn’t afford or ran out
of time to have their ideal number of children. People of color in the U.S. often say they want large
families but end up with smaller ones, Guzzo notes—a sign that not everyone is able to achieve their
ideal scenario.
“What I really worry about,” Guzzo says, “is that we’ve become a country where some people get to
have the kids that they want and some people don’t.”
In some ways, delayed parenthood is a sign of progress. Waiting to have kids is a kind of
empowerment for some women, ensuring they can finish their education, find a fulfilling job, become
financially stable, choose the right partner, and grow and mature as a person before settling down to
have a family. Some studies suggest that kids born to older parents—who tend to be college-educated
and relatively affluent—often grow up to be healthier, better educated, and better behaved than peers
with younger parents, and that women who have children later in life report bigger happiness boosts
around and after their birth, compared to younger mothers.
Untangling why people feel they need to be educated, financially secure, and partnered before having
kids is more complex. For many people, it’s related to societal expectations—many rooted in class and
race hierarchies—about what makes a “good” parent, research suggests. For others, it comes down to
cold, hard math. Child care is prohibitively expensive in the U.S., paid parental leave isn’t guaranteed,
and living costs are sky-high in many places. Those structural barriers cause some people to postpone
having kids by necessity.
Some people who wait to have kids, whether by choice or circumstance, may find that they’ve waited
too long. Fertility begins to decline around a woman’s 30th birthday and starts to drop more
dramatically around age 35. By the time a woman turns 45, the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists says, it’s very unlikely she’ll get pregnant naturally. (Although some men father
children well past middle age, their fertility also declines with time.)
Enter the world of assisted reproductive technology, where demand for services like egg freezing and
in vitro fertilization (IVF) is booming. As of 2023, 42% of Americans said they or someone they knew
had used fertility treatments, up from 33% five years earlier. That growing popularity—and the hefty
price tags attached to these services—have made it a multi-billion-dollar industry in the U.S.
These scientific advances have allowed some people to have children who otherwise couldn’t because
of fertility issues, age, or life circumstances. In 2021 alone, almost 100,000 U.S. infants were born
using these methods. But they’re not accessible to everyone: a single IVF cycle can cost well over
$10,000, and it may not be covered by insurance.
Even for people who can afford that price tag, it’s not a guarantee. In 2020, about 37% of assisted
reproductive technology cycles undertaken in the U.S. resulted in a baby, meaning the majority of
people either needed multiple cycles or did not end up conceiving. And as with natural conception,
success rates decline with age, a cruel fact that means people who use fertility treatments as an
insurance plan sometimes still face an uphill battle. Technology allows a woman to “stretch” her
reproductive window, Athan says, “but it’s still not elastic as maybe we’ve internalized.”
Studies also show that the risks of pregnancy and birth complications—such as gestational diabetes,
high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and miscarriage, plus low birth weight and genetic disorders in
babies—rise with age. But as medical care advances and social norms shift, some women are pushing
back on the idea that older mothers are automatically putting their health, and the health of their baby,
in danger.
Some doctors agree. Labels like “geriatric pregnancy,” once applied to all mothers 35 and older, seem
outdated at a time when birth rates are exploding among people in that age group. The more common
medical term now is “advanced maternal age,” but some doctors are reevaluating who fits into that
category, says Polite, from the University of Pennsylvania. “The truth is, a lot of women from 35 to 40
are not really considered high-risk anymore,” she says. With the testing methods and research available
today, she says, it’s pregnant women in their 40s and 50s to whom she pays closest attention.
Dr. Lisa Dunn-Albanese, an ob-gyn at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, agrees that it’s
become routine to see older parents in the clinic, and that most of them have healthy pregnancies. “I’m
not too worried, I have to admit, about my 30-year-olds,” she says. Age is often a less relevant risk
factor than something like an underlying health condition, she adds.
To Dunn-Albanese, the data on delayed motherhood isn’t overly concerning, at least from a medical
perspective. But what it says about who is waiting to have kids and why, and the resources available to
them when they do, is a more complex question, Guzzo says.
“We might be settling into this new, lower fertility rate where people are waiting longer to have kids,”
which is not inherently a bad thing, she says. What’s more concerning, in her eyes, is the reality that
not everyone who waits does so by choice, and that postponement can turn into not having children at
all.
“This is a pretty basic thing,” Guzzo says. “If people want to have children someday and they can’t,
that’s an indictment of how our society is structured.”
Paraphrase/ Synonyms for keywords
Reasons
Pros
Cons
Exercise 1: In many countries, people decide to have children at a later age than in the past. Why? Do
the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
ARTICLE 2
The Top 6 Reasons Why People Get Plastic Surgery
There are many reasons why people choose to get plastic surgery. Some people want to improve their
appearance, while others want to correct a birth defect or damage from an accident. Whatever the
reason, plastic surgery can be a life-changing procedure.
Here are the top 6 reasons why people get plastic surgery.
Feel Better About Themselves
Plastic surgery can offer a boost in self-confidence for people who are unhappy with their appearance.
It can also help people who have been through a traumatic experience, such as an injury or infection, to
feel like themselves again.
Improve Their Appearance
People often get plastic surgery to improve their appearance. You can do this for many reasons, such as
to look younger, thinner, or have a more symmetrical face. Plastic surgery can also help to correct birth
defects or to repair damage from an accident.
Correct a Physical Imperfection
One of the reasons people choose to get plastic surgery is to correct a physical imperfection. This could
be something like a birthmark, a scar, or a deformity. Sometimes, people feel like they need surgery to
fix something that’s been bothering them for a long time. Other times, they may have an accident or an
injury that leaves them with a physical imperfection. Either way, getting plastic surgery to correct a
physical imperfection is a common reason people choose to go under the knife.
To Boost Their Confidence
Plastic surgery can help people boost their confidence by giving them the physical appearance they
desire. It can also help people feel better about themselves by improving their health and/or
appearance. Plastic surgery can give you:
A more symmetrical face
A smaller nose
Fuller lips
Bigger or smaller eyes
Sharper cheekbones
A pointier chin
Conform to Societal Standards
One of the reasons people get plastic surgery is to conform to societal standards. We live in a world
bombarded with images of “perfect” people in the media, and it can be challenging to feel good about
ourselves when we don’t look like those airbrushed models. So, many people turn to plastic surgery to
achieve the “perfect” look.
Make Themselves Feel Younger
One way that some people combat the effects of aging is by getting plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is
not a magic fix for all the problems that come with aging, but it can be a way for some people to regain
a sense of youthfulness. Procedures like facelifts and Botox injections can help people look younger
and feel better about themselves.
ARTICLE 3
Is plastic surgery good or bad?
Pros
The following sections outline the benefits of plastic and cosmetic surgery.
Improved body confidence and mental health
Plastic and cosmetic surgery can help people align their bodies with the way they want to look.
For example, a 2022 study suggests that cosmetic surgery can help improve body confidence, self-
esteem, and symptoms of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Increasing body confidence may help improve emotional and social health and overall quality of life.
Improved function
Plastic surgery focuses on improving function and correcting areas of irregularity or dysfunction,
which may help enhance a person’s quality of life.
Gender affirmation
In people who seek gender affirming plastic surgery, these procedures may help reduce gender
dysphoria and improve overall well-being and mental health.
Cons
The following are potential drawbacks to cosmetic and plastic surgery.
Unrealistic expectations
People may have unrealistic expectations for the results of cosmetic or plastic surgery.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) states that a surgical procedure may be able to fix a
specific issue, but it cannot make a person look like someone else or reach the level of perfection
people may be seeking.
Unregulated practitioners
It is usually up to an individual to find a suitable cosmetic surgeon, and it is not always clear whether a
doctor has the necessary training and skill set to perform certain procedures.
Costs
Plastic surgery can be expensive, and health insurance may not cover cosmetic surgery without proven
medical reasons.
However, health insurance may cover reconstructive plastic surgery, depending on the procedure.
Body dysmorphia
If people have an underlying mental health condition, such as body dysmorphia, physical changes may
not change the way they see themselves.
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition that causes excessive anxiety related to
how a person views and thinks about their appearance.
The ASPS advises that people should be in a clear state of mind before they undergo any surgery that
could permanently change their body.
Even if the results of a procedure meet the person’s expectations, they may still not be happy with their
appearance after surgery and may look to have repeat procedures.
According to a 2018 article published in the International Journal of Women’s DermatologyTrusted
Source, performing cosmetic surgery on people with BDD involves legal, safety, and ethical
considerations.
The article authors state that surgeons need to use a refined decision-making process when determining
whether to perform cosmetic surgery on this population.
This decision may be based on:
the severity of BDD
the person’s level of functioning
the involvement of mental health professionals
Recovery and downtime
Major procedures will require recovery and downtime. People may need to take time off from work
and may need assistance from others with everyday tasks.
Risks and complications
Like any other surgery, cosmetic and plastic surgery have risks and possible complications that may
negatively affect a person’s health.
All types of surgical procedures, including reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, have risks. Potential
risks include:
infection
anesthetic complications
fluid buildup around incisions
delayed healing of incisions
blood clots
excessive bruising or bleeding
numbness, which may be temporary
dissatisfaction with the outcome
non-permanent results
significant scarring
Paraphrase/ Synonyms for keywords
Reasons
Pros
Cons
Exercise 2: An increasing number of people are choosing cosmetic surgery/ plastic surgery. Why do
people have operations to change the way they look? Do you think this is a positive or negative
development?
