Renowned journalist Nell Frizzell explores what happens when a woman begins to ask herself: Should I have a baby? We have descriptors for many periods of life - adolescence, menopause, midlife crisis, quarter-life crisis - but there is a period of profound change that many women face, often in their late 20s to early 40s, that does not yet have a name. Nell Frizzell is calling this period of flux “the panic years", and it is often characterized by a preoccupation with one major question: Should I have a baby? And from there - do I want a baby? With whom should I have a baby? How will I know when I’m ready? Decisions made during this period suddenly take on more weight, as questions of love, career, friendship, fertility, and family clash together while peers begin the process of coupling and breeding. But this very important process is rarely written or talked about beyond the clichés of the “ticking clock”.