Men's Biological Clocks Are Ticking, Too

New Study Raises Concerns About Men Who Wait To Have Children

(CBS)  The biological clock has always been portrayed in pop culture as a woman's problem. But mounting research shows the clock is ticking for men, too — whether they choose to believe it or not, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.

"You have a decline in hormones, a decline in fertility, as women age and an increased chance of genetic abnormalities to the babies born from older women. Well, surprise, that's exactly what happens to men," says Dr. Harry Fisch, author of "The Male Biological Clock."

In fact, a man's fertility begins to decline in his 30s, then steadily drops through his 40s and 50s.

A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have. But a man produces 100 million sperm each day through cell division. The more often a cell divides, the more likely a glitch will occur as genes are copied. With billions of sperm cells dividing over a man's lifetime, that's a lot of opportunities for error.

"We've known about a lot of problems for aging fathers, but it turns out the most common ones would be those related to behavioral disorders," says Dr. Dolores Malaspina of New York University Medical Center. "So schizophrenia, autism, mental retardation and some cases of Alzheimer's have all been linked to paternal age."

But, says Jim Katchko, "You don't plan to have children later in life, it just works out that way."

Katchko was 42 when his first child, John, was born. At age 3, John was diagnosed with autism.

The children of 40-year-old dads may have double the chance of schizophrenia compared to babies born to dads in their early 20s. The occurrence of autism is about five times greater for fathers in their 40s compared with dads younger than 30.

"If I, as an older father, am contributing or could be contributing to the likelihood that he is autistic, then we need to know that," Katchko says.

While there's no proof that advanced paternal age causes autism, researchers believe the children of older dads should be screened.

"There is a lot of evidence that early interventions can really improve the long-term outcome of people with schizophrenia or autism disorders," Malaspina says.

When John was diagnosed, the Katchkos enrolled him in a special program, and now he's thriving in first grade.

"Older fathers are very valuable to the love and nurturing of a child. Some evidence shows that may offset any risk of paternal age," Malaspina says.

[mongongo-2009]

Here are my reasons for not having children as a woman at age 33. Health care and daycare are not affordable. The price is just out of bounds for anyone to tackle. Back in the 80's and 90's everyone seems to be getting married and having children. Now it seems as if everyone waits until they are 30 or so before they even think about getting married let alone having children. What is a person to do? It is hard to find good paying jobs just to even support myself let and a family if I ever decided to have one. Looking in my local paper for a better paying job is like a needle in a haystack. I have been through the long transformation of having a job ripped out from underneath me and then loosing it because it was going to Mexico, went to school for a different trade and worry everyday still if I am going to loose my job again due to the cheap wages in Mexico. A person gets scared after awhile. Maybe this is the govenments way of deflating the population. Makes sense.

[pf16alex]

In the UK they are beginning to discuss the issue of the increasing average paternal age, how about looking at all the prior evidence of problems for offspring, all this talk about older fathers being so loving and nurturing doesn't change the horror of brain defects. How about grandfathers being loving and nurturing and younger fathers being encourage to prefect so many victims of damaged genes.http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/10/851

[pf16alex]

Sorry for the major typos. Having good genes is the greatest gift a father can give a child. We need to face all the evidence from Penrose, Crow, Malaspina, Zammit, Brown, Reichenberg, Byrne, Sipos, etc. and say it's best to father in your 20s and 30s and stop being wishy washy about this issue. Many men think it is fine to have children in later life, but there is plenty of evidence of the dangers if one looks into the matter. Even pre-menopausal breast cancer, and early childhood cancers including acute lymphoblastic leukemia have been found increase with paternal age over 35. If the research is done we would probably find many more adverse biological effects having an older father.

[dotsareblue2]

My husband is 74 and I am 36 we have two boys age 6 and 8. Both are happy well adjusted children with no defects of any kind. The problem with older fathers is when the fathers health declines the children suffer. My children have grown up in Dr,s offices and hospitals. When the father has older children such as mine does it becomes a constant conflict. The older children feel a sense of entitlement and become angry and vindictive. Currently my husband has become critically ill, now I have his grown children out to destroy my little family over an imaginary inheritance that does not exist. In hind sight I'm happy for all the wonderfull years we have shared and the joy of our children. But I would caution anyone not to consider having children with a man that old. All that love and joy has turned into heartache, rage and bickering with his grown children all of whom are older then me. So all those ladies out there that love antiques including there antique men think twice it's the little children that suffer in the end

[gizmotique]

I would like to know if older fathers are more likely to have a child with angelman syndrome, which is a deletion of chromosome 15 that causes physical and mental disabilities. Also, do men who drink tend to have babies with autism, brain defects, etc.?

[chapnalli]

This is a reach in my opinion. Along with the excessive TV watching theory. I have two children who experienced vaccine reactions and one of them regressed into Autism because of it. My husband was 29yrs when I conceived my son and I was 28yrs. However mercury and other toxins can accumulate in the body and the burden is higher when you are older (as well as the fact that mercury can mutate genes). Let's face it we don't pay attention to environment and what we put in our bodies the consequences are shown in the next generation. I believe attention is desperately trying to be diverted from real "cause" and answers will never be discovered with all of this dancing around the issues. The blame seems to go everywhere except for where it should be.

[pf16alex]

Why such a pretty piece on major cause of autism, schizophrenia, retardation, some alzheimers disease. You SAY, Dr. Malaspina that a loving older father may offset the risk. What are you talking about? Do you profit from schizophrenics? Do the pharmaceutical make over $14 billion a year from this market and the tobacco industry over $45 million. Dr. Manny Frisch Why Not Recommend that men attempt to complete their fathering in the 20-35 year range?You seem too self interested to be objective.
We know why schizophrenia, the worst disease known to man persists in the world. Average paternal age is increasing. You talk about screening all children of older fathers. More money to psychiatrists? HOW ABOUT A CLEAR WARNING OF THE RISKS OF FATHERING AFTER 35 INCREASING AS A MAN AGES-- RISKS TO THE OFFSPRING!

[shamimhalim-2009]

The report clearly shows that early fathering is highly desirable for good health of offsprings.It also helps a man to get his children educated and settled while he is still fit and earning well.
If the children are settled while a man is still in his early fiftees, the couple has a lot of time to enjoy a carefree life with no responsibilities.Thus both from a social point of view and medical point of view it is highly desirable to go for early marriage and plan for early parenthood.

[shamimhalim-2009]

The report clearly shows that early fathering is highly desirable for good health of offsprings.It also helps a man to get his children educated and settled while he is still fit and earning well.
If the children are settled while a man is still in his early fiftees, the couple has a lot of time to enjoy a carefree life with no responsibilities.Thus both from a social point of view and medical point of view it is highly desirable to go for early marriage and plan for early parenthood.

[pf16alex]

there is a form of angelman's syndrome that is paternally related it is the milder form. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/110512037/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0