Do Wanna Be Dads Have a Biological Clock Too?
July 8, 2008 by Gabrielle
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
The answer, it seems, is yes.
A new article at WebMD.com reports:
A study of more than 12,000 couples undergoing fertility treatments has found that pregnancy rates drop and miscarriages increase when the father is older than 40…The results are believed to be the first to show that simply being an older dad has a strong effect on reproductive outcomes.
These findings were presented on Monday at the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, Spain.
How a father’s age influences fertility has been a matter of debate. Until now, there’s been no clinical proof that simply being an older dad directly affects a couple’s ability to conceive and achieve a healthy pregnancy.
But I can think of several older men who have fathered healthy kids with their partners, just as I can think of women nearing and (gasp) even passing that 35-year mark, which is supposed to signal “advanced maternal age” and warrant all kinds of extra precautions, who have become proud parents.
What do you think of this new finding? Is it reassuring to know that men’s age factors more into the equation, or does this feel like one more thing to worry about?
