How Old is Your Father?

Men Produce Sperms Lifelong, but what about their Quality?

Age is no bar for unconditional affection and love. One of the greatest joys of lives is to hold your newborn child in your hands! To become a parent is an exhilarating experience and there is no age limit/suitable age to enter parenthood. Our Bollywood celebrities such as Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt to our Hollywood celebrities such as George Clooney and Michael Douglas are living examples that age is just a number! Irrespective of all these, there are certain hardcore facts attached to fathering a child at an old age.
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The Standard Question
Every married woman in her 30s without children goes through the age-old ritual of being asked the same question “You’re well into your 30s, haven’t you still planned for a baby?” or “You’ll need to conceive as early as possible.” While their husbands should also be well into their 30s, they are never bombarded with such awkward questions. This brings us to ask a question ourselves- Is it only a woman’s biological clock that ticks away and do men remain fertile and healthy forever? Or, maybe the society is too concerned about the woman in the family and unaware of the risk factors and issues surrounding male fertility and health of the offspring.

After 40s
It is true that men continue producing sperms lifelong at the same rate, but there are plenty other factors that affect the birth of a healthy infant. Also, women in their late 30s start experiencing difficulties conceiving whereas the risk of not able to produce good-quality sperms can start either at 40s, 50s or even 60s in the case of men.

Fathering a child well into your 40s is pretty difficult and foremost important is staying fertile enough to advocate pregnancy. Various factors such as sperm quality (number of sperms remain the same, but their shape and movement deteriorate as one grows old increasing fertility difficulty levels) and having an old partner (older men mostly have older partners and female fertility rates decline steadily after the age of 35) make conception a bigger problem in life. Also, older sperms might have more mutations that can be damaging. While there are suggestions that an aging sperm has longer telomeres that promise longevity of the child, there is no strong evidence backing this.

Problems that Your Age Picks on the Way
One is quite aware of the number of tests and ultrasounds that a mother-to-be undergoes these days to deliver a healthy child. This is mainly due to different lifestyle practices followed-individuals marry late, conceive even later and follow numerous unhealthy food habits-that can result in babies born with defects or ill-health. Research show that there are quite a few genetic conditions linked to babies with older fathers. The major conditions that can affect a newborn child whose father is above the age of 40 include:

• Autism
• Schizophrenia
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This is more common among boys than girls and can damage the quality of life of the affected individual. Get more information about ADHD and ways to deal with it from www.firsteatright.com.
• Bipolar disorder
• Down’s syndrome: We are well-aware of the risk of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome when the woman is over 35 years of age but not much is known about paternal risks associated. Research analysis showed that fathers over 40 had twice the rate of Down syndrome births compared to men 24 years old or younger when they gave birth to children with women over the age of 35. Mothers over 40 who gave birth to kids with Down’s syndrome had 50% risk attributable to the age of the father. So, paternal age does play a vital role in assessing Down syndrome risk but only in mothers 35 years old or older.
• Achondroplasia: This was the first genetic disease linked to advanced paternal age. This condition results in dwarfism where the hands and legs are short. but the torso is of normal length. Achondroplasia-affected individuals don’t grow more than 4.4 feet (male) or 4.1 feet (female).
• Cancer: Risk of cancer and the onset of malignancy is pretty high when the paternal and maternal age is higher. It may be due to prolonged environmental exposure of the paternal DNA or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Breast and prostate cancer risks increase multi-folds when the dad’s conception age is above 40.
• Childhood leukemia: While the risk is 1 in 25,000 in the general population, the risk increases to 1 in 17,000 when the paternal age is above 35 years.

 
IVF Success Rate
A study shows that in couples requiring IVF to conceive, the chances of giving birth to a live baby decreased when the father’s age increased. Harvard researchers who analyzed more than 7000 couples undergoing IVF procedure found that:

• Females aged between 40 and 42 years posed the lowest chances of delivering live babies. In these circumstances the male partner’s age was of no concern
• When the female was younger than 40 years, the chances of a live baby decreased when the male partner’s age increased
• Women between 35 and 40 years of age whose partners were under 30 witnessed nearly 30% improvement in their chances of a successful birth compared to women who had partners between the ages of 30 and 35.
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Currently, there is no treatment or solution that can be offered to older couples interested in producing offspring. Only education and encouragement to conceive at an early age can be provided presently. Some individuals are now considering ‘social freezing’ of sperms to avoid the risks of paternal ageing. One should also not forget the fact that individuals love to settle down in life and then enter the phase of parenthood to offer good care for their children. This settling period might differ from person to person and acts as one of the contributing factors for couples entering parenthood well into their late 30s, 40s or even 50s. Anyone over 40 planning for a baby should definitely visit the physician and get checked. Unlike in women in menopause stage who experience hot flushes, there is nothing likewise in men that indicate sperm abnormalities. All of us love to father an infant, but isn’t it our responsibility to ensure that the offspring is healthy and most of all, wouldn’t it be great to see our kids grow up into fit and healthy adults?