We hear so often about the risks that older moms-to-be face while pregnant; among them an increased risk of miscarriage. Now it seems that the age of the father also plays a factor in whether a woman miscarries. And what’s surprising is that the risk is independent of the woman’s age.
According to a report released Monday in the journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology , researchers found after studying over 14,000 women who were pregnant in the 1960s and 70s , that when the father was 40 or older, the risk of miscarriage was 60% higher than for those who were 25 to 29-years-old. And the risk was three times greater for men 35 to 39 than for a man 25 or younger.
This new finding and other reports point out that, like women, men also have a biological clock. And although men continue to produce sperm and can father children well into their 60’s and beyond, their fertility apparently also declines much like a woman’s does. With so much focus on the woman’s age and the possibility of birth defects, sometimes it is overlooked that the father’s age may play a factor in birth defects as well. Genetic abnormalities in sperm appear to become more common as men age which can cause birth defects.
So do these new findings suggest that older men should not become fathers? Of course not. No more so than an older woman should forgo having a baby late in life. What it does mean is that when a couple is planning a family and the father is over 35, this should also be factored into the equation. From what I have been reading it seems that if both parents are in reasonably good health having a baby late in life should not be as much of an issue as some people make it out to be. As with any pregnancy, good prenatal care is the answer to a healthy pregnancy and delivery.