Does a father’s age affect fertility? (Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times)When it comes to age and fertility, women fear a “biological clock” and are urged to have children early. But men are rarely given the same advice and often don’t worry about fertility when postponing marriage and children.
But a growing body of research now shows the age of the potential father matters too. French researchers have collected data from more than 21,000 artificial inseminations involving 12,200 infertile couples. The data, presented yesterday at the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, found that pregnancy rates decrease and miscarriages increase when a father is over 35 years of age.
Dr. Stephanie Belloc, of the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris, said this is the first time that such a strong paternal effect on reproductive outcomes has been shown.
In most of the cases studied, the couples were being treated because of the husband’s infertility, but the researchers analyzed the results in a way to separate out the male and female factors related to each pregnancy. The sperm of each partner was examined for a number of characteristics, including sperm count, motility and morphology. Clinical pregnancy, miscarriage and delivery rates were also recorded.
As expected, maternal age was a strong predictor of success. Intrauterine insemination, or IUI, led to pregnancy in 14.5 percent of women under 35, but just 8.9 percent in older women. Miscarriage rates were also typically affected by maternal age.
But notably, a similar effect was shown for men over 35, in both pregnancy rates and miscarriage rates.
“This research has important implications for couples wanting to start a family,” Dr. Belloc said. “Our research proves for the first time that there is a strong paternal age-related effect on IUI outcomes, and this information should be considered by both doctors and patients in assisted reproduction programs.”
Because the data are based on men with known fertility problems, it’s not clear whether the results apply to all men as they age. However, previous studies have also suggested that the biological clock ticks for men too. To learn more, read this 2007 story from The Times.
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This is good news for men who feel like they have until Charlie Chaplin age to have children (his last was rumored to have been when he was 77), and for women who have born the brunt of the dreaded biological clock’s tick alone until now.
— soleil7This is fabulous news for me, who’s 30-something boyfriend just received this article via e-mail!
The Talmud says older fathers father orphans.
— MARK KLEIN, M.D.Older fathers, being more appreciative, may have already rescued the mother from the equally disfavored states of spinsterhood or out of wedlock birth — what does the Talmud say about THAT. Semi-orphanhood is better than never being born. Nature made children self-centered and resiliant. As for Poster #1, no one deserves a feckless lover, but you may have made a tactical error by your hasty e-mail. Hope he doesn’t bolt.
— jayblah, blah, blah…
— elbone cotThe age of the father can also be a determinate in the probability that a child will have a genetic disease: the longer the man has been alive and producing sperm, the more opportunity the mutated chromosome has had to replicate itself in cells.
As an article in the Intl Hearld Tribune published on Feb 28 2007 by Roni Rabin:
“Unlike women, who are born with a lifetime supply of eggs, men are constantly making new sperm. But the spermatogonia — the immature stem cells in the testes that replenish sperm — are constantly dividing and replicating, with each round of division creating another possibility for error.”
Emily
— EmilyCambridge
maybe the older men tended to be married to older women and therefore more likely to be statistally associated with miscarriages and other problems. No clue is given in this article about how (or if) they corrected for such an obvious association.
FROM TPP — As the article notes, the analysis was able to distinguish between male and female issues affecting birth rates, so yes, they controlled for age of the woman in analyzing the effect of male age.
— sal paradise“Saved” a woman from “spinsterhood”, jay? I think spinsterhood might save many a woman from a man who thinks like you do.
— CharleneIt is interesting that the best infertility data comes from European countries,where infertility is paid for by the states. Europeans can put their fertility at risk without impunity or personal cost.
— jzPost #5 is very right. Studies done a few years ago showed older fathers (not mothers) were more likely to have children with mood (ie, depression, anxiety, bipolar) and/or affective (ie, schizophrenia) disorders. Indeed, many people with schizophrenia, is has been seen, had older fathers; the mother’s age with not relevant.
And by the way, the Talmud is a book filled with much wisdom. This is certainly a case in point.
— MichaelSal (#6):
I had the exact same thought. If older men are paired with older women, it’s difficult to seperate the father’s impact on pregnancy success. If they had a group of men older than 35 mated to women below 35, that would make it much easier to draw this conclusion. Tara, did the paper say anything about that?
— ShankWell said, Charlene!
— richesjkJay is so charming. We understand. This kind of news is hard on men who feel they’ve been passed over & were counting on more years in which to find someone before being too, um, mature to have a healthy baby. But we’ll be more sensitive than to use the word “spinster” (a masculine form of the word, incidentally).
— sloanSorry, Tara, but I would look at this French survey with a bit of scepticism. When I lived in Paris from 1990 to 2000, the only sanctioned way to obtain donor sperm was through a nationalized sperm bank with a strict maternal age limit of 35. There was a waiting list of several years, because of the bureaucracy and a stigma against donation. As someone slightly past that age limit and with one child already, I had to turn to private means to obtain the sperm. The infertility expert I was going to use in Paris was arrested, shortly after I began the process, for trafficking in sperm obtained from prisoners.
— flipturnTime is everything. Bottom line. If one is looking to have a healthy pregnancy, the most opportune time for men and women to mate would be prior to their forties.
— nitosha1. I’m very happy I married a younger man. (Ok, I was happy already before I read this article, but this was just some icing on that cake.)
2. I’m happy for my single GFs that men finally have a sell-by date. It’s about time.
— ShiraJay said “Semi-orphanhood is better than never being born.”
What an absurd thing to say. Upon what information do you base this judgment? No doubt we’ve heard plenty from those whose fathers died when they were children, but as yet we haven’t heard a peep from anyone who was never born.
— Rage BabySo let me rule out potential spouses based exclusively on fertility studies. What a brilliant idea! Maybe I can also rule out certain mates based on their family histories of heart disease, cancer, etc. Anything to find the PERFECT mate, right?
— Carolinejay… if only you could save me from spinsterhood, my life would be fulfilled.
— old maidAs researchers might say, this study lacks external validity. We cannot make inferences about the general population of men based upon this study alone. There is significant selection bias in that the men were known to have fertilitity problems. If the sample of men were randomly selected, then the only inferences we can make are about the general population of men with fertility problems.
— Gatsby_dcThere is a problem when science - which as no conscience - parses every single act of nature, no matte how obvious. It may provide the rationale for an equation such as this:
Genetics + (Politics and Profit) = Eugenics
Far-fetched? I don’t think so.
— MikeShira said:
1. I’m very happy I married a younger man. (Ok, I was happy already before I read this article, but this was just some icing on that cake.)
2. I’m happy for my single GFs that men finally have a sell-by date. It’s about time.
Congratulations on your first comment. I don’t understand your second one though.. why would you be happy to condemn older men (and their “sell-by” date) that may end up with one of your single GF’s? You make it sound as though you’re happy that older men may produce at risk children, which means you’re happy to condemn said children to a miserable life or tragic death. I sincerely hope you didn’t mean that the way it sounds.
— DougThere are some advantages to being older mothers and fathers. The mature parents are sometimes in a better financial position to raise their children. They frequently have experienced many of the joys of youth and can approach a sustained period of increased responsibility with greater discipline and more objectivity. There are less thoughts about “what are we missing?” They may also bring more wisdom and learning to raising children.
— Richard H.I’m mid-50’s and my wife is mid-40’s and in the past 18 months we’ve just had in succession two of the brightest and most adorable girls anyone could hope for.
Like Han Solo said in Star Wars: “Never tell me the odds!”
— Dr. Gary (not medical)the article strongly implies that men should have children earlier in their lives.
The problem is, men don’t bear children, women do.
Women also initiate more divorces (66%).
— problem is womenIn reference to No. 6 post: Older women tend to be married to older men. Many older men, on the other hand, are married to younger women. Therefore, a study that shows a higher miscarriage rate for older fathers would seem to be more accurate in implicating older men than a similar study of older women (which wouldn’t be clear as to whether the older woman’s age, or her older mate’s age was to blame for the miscarriage). Phrased so Jay can understand it: if sweet young things married to old geezers are having more miscarriages, blaming the geezers would seem to be appropriate.
— Teresa