Even for men, having a baby after 45 entails risks for the future child.
FHaving a child after 45 would not be without risk for men. More and more studies have looked into the question, while the average age of the first child continues to decline. A new study, published in the journal Maturitas, just highlighted the consequences of late paternity.
After 40 years of research, the result is clear: the risks are multiple, while “most men do not realize that there are also [des changements biologiques] at home”, deplore the three American researchers, authors of the study. Indeed, unlike women, men are very rare to consult for this reason.
A riskier pregnancy
The age of the man could therefore be decisive in the conception of a child. In addition to the decline in sperm quality, this loss of fertility comes from “natural decline in male testosterone levels over time“, according to Gloria Bachmann, co-author of the study and director of the Women’s Health Institute at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine. In addition to this loss of fertility, an advanced age of the father can lead to various complications during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes in the first place, which can lead to a difficult delivery, as well as a risk of pre-eclampsia. This is high blood pressure associated with protein in the urine, which can have many consequences: intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight, prematurity…
Risks for the child later
The study also adds that babies of fathers over 40 or 45 are at greater risk of developing a number of conditions: congenital heart disease, neonatal seizures, cancers, cognitive disorders such as autism… And that’s not all: “It has been proven that schizophrenia is more likely in children of older fathers – one in 141 children whose father is under 25 years, compared to one in 47 with a father over 50 – although the reason is not yet fully understood,” adds Gloria Bachmann. “In addition, certain studies have shown that the risk of autism begins to increase when the father is 30 years old, stabilizes at 40 years old, then increases at 50 years old”, specifies the scientist.
A single solution to reduce all these risks of pathologies: men who are approaching their forties and want to have children in several years should consider store, or even freeze, their sperm.
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