Men Have Biological Clocks Too

Filed in archive Studies on August 1, 2006

These days, more and more Americans are putting off having children until they are in their 30s or 40s. The medical community has known for years that the older a pregnant woman is, the more likely she will have problems with her pregnancy. Researchers are now finding out that older men are also passing along risks of miscarriage and genetic defects to their unborn children.

A study of approximately 14,000 women who were pregnant in the 1960s and 70s revealed that the risk of miscarriage was 60 percent higher if father was over age 40 compared to men who were aged 25 to 29. Miscarriage risk was also higher for men in their 30s. The study showed that the miscarriage risks for fathers aged 35 to 39 were three times greater than they were for younger men. The risks were all independent of the mother's age, suggesting that men have biological clocks too. This research was written up in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal.

Men are able to continue to produce sperm and father children as they grow older, but the quality and abundance of their sperm tends to decline with age. Women tend to be very aware of the fact that they only have so many years to have children, but this new research suggests that men should also consider their own age when it comes to fatherhood. There is good news, however. The researchers pointed out that advanced paternal age may only slightly raise a couple's risk of miscarriage in genetic abnormalities in their offspring.

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