Doctors have said that new compulsory sex education classes should teach students about fertility

Girls should be taught how and when to get pregnant in new compulsory sex education classes, a coalition of leading doctors, fertility experts and campaigners has told the government.

The traditional focus on contraception and warnings over the risk of teen pregnancy mean that many young women assume they will conceive as soon as they want to, according to the Fertility Education Initiative (FEI). In fact, NHS figures show that one in seven couples struggles to conceive.

The rising age of women having children is a cause of concern, the group of academics and experts said, and the pain of involuntary childlessness should not be underestimated.

The average age for a woman in the UK to have a child is 30, up from 26 in