Is there a link between IQ and infertility?

[Snafu03]

I guess this could be a Body & soul question but has social connotations;

Whenever you hear about couples struggling to have a baby and having to go through IVF (from what I see) they always tend to be more middle class, professional people. Also young couples with lots of kids tend to be of 'lower breeding'

Maybe the only way to ensure survival of species is to breed fast and regularly and people of lower IQ are more in touch with this on a biological level. Has the pursuit for intelligence and the need to do well in the workplace effectively taken people further away from their reproductive functioning?

[Count-A-Strong]

Or is it that there needs to be more Indians than cheifs?

[smurfchops]

It could be that middle class married women decide to have a career until their mid thirties / early forties, when their biological clock starts ticking, and the older they get the less fertile they become. Unfortunately the little 12 year old chavs start bonking before they have learnt their alphabet. They are more fertile when they are younger, the rest speaks for itself. The benefit system doesn't help either.

[bednobs]

interesting theory. Perhaps lower class people aren't interesting to the media or dont have a voice? Perhaps the lower class couples cant afford to have IVF, or are excluded because of other factors (for example using a crude stereotype, in our area you can get ivf treatment if you smoke, or are fat)

[smurfchops]

bednobs, do you mean 'can't get IVF treatment'? Would be worrying if they could ! :)

[dr b]

Did the movie "Idiocracy" ever make it across the pond to the UK?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

A very (VERY) uneven comedy, but the premise of the movie is essentially given by your last paragraph.

One quote from the film: "As the years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes that genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections. "

[dr b]

Also: "As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species. "

[bednobs]

sorry, yes i meant can't

[Snafu03]

Looks a good film Dr.B. I'm a fan of Mike Judges work, Office Space etc. even Beavis & Butthead (in my younger day!) May have to get my hand on a copy.

I did think along Smurfchops line and thought maybe it is because career people are leaving it a bit late to bear children?

Look at the animal kingdom; they dont need any extra help to pro-create. Maybe the further we remove ourselves from what was intended for a human lifestyle, the harder it is to function from a biological point of view.

[joggerjayne]

We are at our most fertile between 18-21 ...

... the "Chav Baby Window"

The Chavs WILL take over !

Natural selection dictates that, in a few generations time, we will all ...

... wear track suit at social gatherings

... marry men who wear earrings

... refer to each other as "mate"

... support Millwall

... have all our children by the age of 21

... live off "the Social"

... own a Burberry baseball cap

... and live in Croydon.