Older Lovers Are Less Desirable Fathers 20s Are The Prime Age to Father Babies

Male Health: The Long ShotFrom puberty on, reproductive health and the viability of sperm continue to evolve.

By:Mark Teich

20s
These are prime years for male reproduction. Men have the maximum amount of mature sperm cells and the least DNA damage. The risk of producing birth defects or causing other problems in offspring is as low as it ever will be.
30s
The mid-thirties also bring a significant increase in sperm DNA damage and thus an increased risk of producing birth defects. One in 99 fathers ages 30-35 sire children with schizophrenia versus one in 141 for fathers under age 25.
40s
The risk of schizophrenia doubles in children of fathers in their late forties compared with children of fathers under age 25. Men 40 and older are nearly six times more likely to have offspring with autism.
By age 50, the DNA cells that create sperm have gone through more than 800 rounds of division and replication, vastly decreasing the quality of sperm and increasing the chances of mutation and birth defects. The risk of schizophrenia almost triples for children of fathers 50 and older; one in 47 fathers sires a child with the condition.
60s
At the age of 60, 85 percent of sperm is clinically abnormal, something researchers attribute to normal aging.






Older Lovers Are Less Desirable Fathers Can society change and paternal age come down?


From a study of European noble families, it seems that daughters of older fathers have a shortened life span. Using data from 700 families with 2,159 daughters and 4,942 sons, the study looked only at children who survived past age 30 in order to discount the effect of childhood diseases. It was found that daughters born to young fathers (in their 30s) lived to age 74.5. Daughters of older fathers (in their 50s) averaged 72.4 years. Correcting data for maternal age, parental longevity, and historical fluctuations in life expectancies increased the difference in these two groups of daughters from 2 years to 3 years.
It was suggested that this effect was due to the accumulation of genetic mutations during cell division which is more likely to be seen in sperm cells which are manufactured through adulthood rather than eggs which are produced during fetal development. Daughters would receive an X chromosome from an older father with more mutations in it than would daughters from young fathers