Couples should be encouraged to start families earlier, instead of expecting to achieve career success and get on the housing ladder first, Britain’s leading fertility expert has said.

Dr Jane Stewart called for a shift in society, urging those hoping for children to start planning earlier, when their fertility was more secure.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she said too many couples faced fertility heartbreak because they delayed their attempts for so long.

“We all tend to think that you have to have your home, your car, be in an established job before you start your family,” she said.

“My parents started life in a caravan and gradually built up - I think we’ve changed our priorities in a way.”

It follows warnings from fertility watchdogs that too many IVF clinics are exploiting older women, by “trading on hope” when just two a year will achieve success, after the age of 44.

Dr Stewart said employers should do more to assist family-friendly working - including provision of creches - instead of encouraging women to freeze their eggs.

She said corporate policies offering subsidised egg storage were a “disingenous” way of persuading workers to delay starting a family, creating the illusion that fertility could be safely put on ice.