Working Dad: An Unauthorized Guide to Parenting

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Lots of evidence that men have their own biological clocks
I stumbled across another article that says there is "abundent evidence" men have their own biological clocks.

Advanced daddy age increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, autism and other disorders in offspring, the journal Geriatrics reports in Older men are having children, but the reality of a male biological clock makes this trend worrisome.

Studies demonstrate that men older than age 35 are twice as likely to be infertile (defined as the inability to initiate a pregnancy within 12 months) as men younger than 25 years.
...
Further, after controlling for maternal age, couples in which the male is older than 35 have a 50% lower pregnancy rate compared with couples in which men are 30 or younger. -- Geriatrics, 1/15/08.



Plus, "The male biological clock also "ticks" at the level of genes. The genetic integrity of sperm has been shown in several studies to decline with age."

The article summarizes a lot of the existing research, including

On autism:

Offspring of men 40 years or older were 5.75 times more likely to have ASD compared with offspring of men younger than 30 years, after controlling for year of birth, socioeconomic status, and maternal age.



On schizophrenia:

Men older than 40 were more than twice as likely to have a child with schizophrenia as men in their 20s.


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de.licio.usDiggFacebookNewsvineRedditStumbleUponGoogle BookmarksYahoo MyWebTwitterPosted by Paul Nyhan at January 16, 2009 3:55 p.m.
Categories: Autism, Childhood mental illness, Health news and research, News, Older parents, pregnancy, science
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