女人生育的“最后期限”是多少歲？

New tests may provide fertility 'deadline.' A test developed by Iranian researchers could let women, even in their 20s, predict within a few months when they will stop being fertile. The test measures levels of a hormone produced in the ovaries that controls development of egg cells. Of 63 women who reached menopause during the study, the average difference between the predicted age and the actual age the women reached menopause was just a third of a year, according to one report. 'The results from our study could enable us to make a more realistic assessment of women's reproductive status many years before they reach menopause,' the lead researcher said in a news release. Meanwhile, another new test, described here, claims to predict when a women's ovaries will start to fail. Would you want to know any fertility issues in advance, in order to help make family-planning decisions? Or does that creep you out?

Delaying kids may pay off financially. A new study found that delaying kids may prevent a financial 'motherhood penalty,' the pay gap between childless women and working moms. Researchers reviewed 35 years of data from some 2,200 women and found that women who had kids in their early- to mid-20s or even younger didn't fare as well economically as those who delayed, USA Today reported. The research found women who got more education and job training before having children end up as successful economically as women who didn't have kids.

More women in their 40s childless. Nearly one in five American women in her early 40s is childless, according to a Pew study, a large increase from years past. The trend was much less common in the 1970s, when one in 10 women did not have children by 40 to 44, the age bracket researchers use to designate the end of childbearing years, the Washington Post reported. The report cites social and cultural shifts behind the change, including less pressure to have children, better contraceptive measures and expanded job opportunities for women, said the Post.