National Infertility Awareness Week

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Infertility is a quiet crisis for many couples and it is hoped that National Infertility Awareness Week can help in two ways.

One way is to get the 7.3 million couples affected by some sort of infertility to check out new options. This is a complex field, says infertility consultant Mindy Berkson, where no two problems are the same. One major issue is delayed child-bearing. A woman's eggs, present at birth, deteriorate with the years and by age 30, 90 percent are depleted.

Would that mean the best advice is to have kids sooner?

"It's a simple solution but it's not so simple if you're a woman who's 27 or 30 years old who's not ready to be married and you're still working on building your career and advancing your career, advancing your education, so options for these women may include freezing your eggs," Berkson said.

The second point of awareness week is to get the rest of us to turn a kind ear to those with infertility issues.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio