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Older dads have their own biological clocks
Can you hear it? Men's biological clocks are ticking louder than ever.

I keep stumbling across evidence that older men bring their own share of problems to baby-making, just like women. I've written about connections between old sperm, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism. Recently, I read about a possible connection to miscarriages in "Yo, dude, check your bio clock -- now."

A French study released in July found that women's pregnancy rates drop and miscarriages increase when the mother is over 35 and the father is over 40. Another study suggests that a man's fertility begins to decrease as early as his 20s. Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory tested men between the ages of 22 and 80, and found that semen volume and sperm motility were both significantly compromised by aging.


-- The Ottawa Citizen. (The story came out this summer, but I haven't seen it in the United States.)

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying dads hold more responsibility for any of these problems. It is just that moms carried the biological clock on their own for a long time, and we all know it takes a man and woman to make babies.


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de.licio.usDiggFacebookNewsvineRedditStumbleUponGoogle BookmarksYahoo MyWebTwitterPosted by Paul Nyhan at November 18, 2008 3:17 p.m.