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Comment by throwawaysleep | Hacker News Reader

This explanation may make sense if people were complaining about an inability to have kids despite wanting them. But physical infertility is not alleged here.

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True, but most developed nations have easy access to IVF and/or other conception medical services.

Another question might be...what % of couples can get pregnant without artificial means? And how is that changing over time?

For perspective there are estimates out there that IVF will be involved in 10% of pregnancies in the near future. Some of that is it getting better, cheaper, and more accessible obviously...but we are talking about something (pregnancy) that's technically "free".

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8722744/#:~:tex....

Those hormones could very well affect the desire to have kids too.

Our brains and hormones are poorly understood.

"We don't understand it" is the absence of an argument, not positive evidence that these chemicals make people not want to have children.

I agree that it's a frustrating counter argument since it is so vague and poorly understood but we really don't know a lot about how hormones effect decision making outside of a few very crude ones.

It is a mostly non-existent argument but it's still something that's important to consider.

If you must have a child hormones will have little to do with it. Reproduction can be made into a very routine robotic like activity, like going to the gym.

I'm not certain where this is really coming from. There are certainly ways to ignore people's consent and physically force pregnancy but this article is focused on whether people are choosing to have children or not. Would you mind clarifying your statement? It's very difficult to read what you're getting at.

Also, just technically speaking, we know there are hormones that absolutely can prevent you from being able to get pregnant - that's what the pill is.

It affects physical fertility

https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/what-edcs-are/common-ed...

Correct. South Korea's low birth rate is primarily out of personal choices, although likely impacted by high cost of living and weirdly kid-unfriendly cultural norms.

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