For Men Planning Fatherhood, Age Is a Factor
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08 July, 2008 02:15 GMT
New research shows that a man's age is a more important consideration in achieving a viable pregnancy than was previously believed. For women, loss of reproductive ability is defined by menopause, which usually takes place at about 50 years of age but can occur as early as 40 or as late as 60. Men, however, have been known to father children into old age. An Indian man reportedly
sired his 21st child at the age of 90 last year.
Still, those cases of older fathers do not reflect the latest findings, which indicate that pregnancies are more difficult to achieve and miscarriages more likely to occur if the father is past his reproductive prime.
In an evaluation of more than 12,000 couples seeking treatment for infertility, researchers observed that pregnancy rates fell and incidences of miscarriage increased when the father was older than 40. The results were presented Monday at the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, Spain.
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