Stephanie Prentice

Well, the scheme to tackle fertility issues in France has been in the works for a while at the Ministry of Health, but it's just been revealed, well, aspects at least.

One of 16 new measures is this letter that will arrive when people turn 29, reminding them of their biological clock and basically give them a nudge to say, get on with it if you want to have children.

Its goal, it says, is to tackle what it calls the if-only-I-had-known mentality, which some young people in France have been reacting to.

So they're saying this doesn't make any sense.

They're saying sending a letter to remind them isn't necessary.

French influencers have also been commenting, mostly humorously, saying lack of awareness isn't the issue, they haven't got any money, they haven't got job security, with one viral comment saying people don't want to be pressured, saying Macron, il a combien d'enfants, pointing out that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, doesn't have biological children.

Well, this is part of a broader plan to support people in France.

It estimates one in eight couples have fertility issues.

The letter includes a reminder that egg freezing can be done for free there between certain ages.

It says it wants to make France a world leader in fertility research.

So that's been welcomed.

Before we came on air, I spoke to a professor at the Université de Paris.

She's called Stéphanie Tatin.

She specialises in public health policy.

She thinks it's very complicated.

She says the plan ignores fundamental issues in French society.

She described a kind of tangle of societal, economic and behavioural reasons.

And she said that young women are basically opting out of having children.

Her prediction is that the birth rate will continue to decline.

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