Conceiving children by men younger than 35 years of age would prevent many genetic illnesses in future generations, but paternal age is very high

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf


The connection between the Male Biological Clock/ germ line mutations (in sperm only, not in the body's other cells) and New/non-familial Genetic Illness in Offspring is not known to the average American. Some sperm banks cut off donations at a man's 35th birthday to prevent genetic illnesses. Some sperm banks outside of the US do not accept donations of a man older than 30 for the same reason.

This factor is well known by researchers etc. but not conveyed to the public who are led to believe that sperm are fresh and eggs are old. The sperm come from cells that divide and divide and divide. The mother's age is not the key to autism's increase.


Age of the father and the health of future generations by Dr. Leslie B. Raschka



In the most comprehensive study that has ever been carried out in this field, on a total of 200,000 spermatozoids from 18 donors aged between 24 and 74 years old, the UAB researchers have discovered that the older a man is, the more probable it is that his spermatozoa will present anomalies in the number of chromosomes. They also noticed for the first time that the relationship between these two factors is lineal. The scientists at the UAB have determined that the percentage of spermatozoids with all chromosomes (karyotype) doubled (a phenomenon known as diploid) increases by 17% for each increase of ten years in age. Moreover, the researchers determined that the probability of chromosome 6 appearing twice (instead of once) in the same spermatozoid is 5.9% greater every ten years, 11.5% greater for the same anomaly in chromosome 21 (responsible for Down’s Syndrome) and 8.6% greater for sexual chromosomes. The research, co-ordinated by professors Josep Egozcue and Cristina Templado at the Cellular Biology, Physiology and Immunology Department at the UAB has been published in the periodical European Journal of Human Genetics, which belongs to the Nature group of scientific publications. Also participating in the project were the UAB Researchers Mercè Bosch and Olga Martínez-Pasarell, and Osvaldo Rajmil, researcher at the Andrology Department in the Puigvert Foundation.