I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR tuesday. The topic was fascinating: the effect of the father's age on reproductive complications.
While many studies have shown the effects of aging on a woman's eggs, and complications like spontaneous abortions and certain genetic anomalies, until the last few years no one looked closely on the effects of the father's age. All they knew was there was no decrease in sperm numbers, morphology or motility with aging.
Now it seems that paternal age over forty is associated with more infertility, an increase in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), as well as a number of identifiable point mutations (which cause diseases like Elephant Man's Disease, Marfan Syndrome or retinoblastoma. The aging ovum is more associated with gene aneuploidy, too many or too few choromosomes, leading to problems like Down Syndrome or Klinefelter's Syndrome or Turner's Syndrome, as well as infertility and spontaneous abortion.
The aging sperm has more chromosomal breakage than does the younger. In addition, aging sperm are associated with more schizophrenia (though this multifactorial disease is hard to study) and autism (as well as the related Asperger's Syndrome). They also segue into some of the reasons why there is more autism diagnosed than ever before. Reasons for apparently increasing numbers include increased recognition and diagnosis, as well as changes in the criteria for diagnosis, as well as a possible increase in incidence. They also explain why vaccines, which are often blamed for autism, probably have nothing to do with it.
The bottom line: Fathers over 40 years of age have a 94% chance of having a completely normal child. This is either encouraging or discouraging depending on how one looks at it. But these things need to be taken into consideration as couples plan to have children at that age, couples in which the man or woman or both are over forty,
All in all, a fascinating interview on an evolving topic.
[Illustration via Riddle Ware Funnies]
Schizophrenia and profound autism (not asperger's syndrome) are devasting conditions. Advanced paternal age is should be discouraged because of the misery and hopelessness these conditions. The afflicted can't speak out about the horror. Premenopausal breast cancer and early childhood cancers are also associated with advanced paternal age. Someone needs to speak out against the 94% odds (so called) of a ok child.
Posted by: Lena Howe | October 21, 2006 at 11:45 PM
Complaints are the greatest offerings that God obtains from human beings, as well as the most faithful prayers human beings might utter toGod. I thought It was very reasonable
Posted by: Jordans 5 | July 18, 2010 at 03:38 AM