The Genetic Male Biological Clock

Prevent Paternal Age Autism etc. Father your babies in your twenties to early 30s

Two Brothers, Battling Autism


By Review Suki Casanave
Sunday, May 24, 2009

BOY ALONE

A Brother's Memoir

By Karl Taro Greenfeld

Harper. 355 pp. $25.99

Older Man More Genetically Deformed Sperm

Do you know why delayed fatherhood can cause miscarriage?
Post at : 2009-05-21 13:25:44 View：7 Zoom：【B M S】
Prof. Know Why answers for your general knowledge and awareness on: Do you know why delayed fatherhood can cause miscarriage? Couples who want to start a family, better plan it early in your life because the more you delay, the stronger becomes the risk of a miscarriage, say the scientists. And this applies to both men and women. Contrary to the older belief that men remain fertile even at old age, this new research points out that delayed fatherhood can also cause miscarriage like late motherhood. Delayed fatherhood for men is a cause of concern for a healthy pregnancy and the baby as well, doctors warn, after a recent research found that male fertility begins to decline when they reach their mid-30s. Doctors said men who wait until their 40s before starting a family face a greater chance of their partner having a miscarriage, because of the poorer quality of their sperm. The researchers studied the records of more than 12,000 couples treated for infertility at the fertility clinic, Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris between January 2002 and December 2006; and separated out the influence of male and female ages on the couples' chances of having a baby. They found that women whose partners were 35 or older had more miscarriages than those who were with younger men, regardless of their own age. The men's ages also affected pregnancy rates, which were lower in the over-40s. The study looked at pregnancies and miscarriages recorded for couples having IUI treatment at the clinic. It found the risk of miscarriage was on average 16.7% when men were aged 30-34. That rate rose to 19.5% when men were 35-39 and 33% in men aged 40 or over. The findings are a concern, researchers say, because of the trend for men to delay fatherhood. Stéphanie Belloc, lead author of the study, said that until now, gynecologists only focused on maternal age, and the message was to get pregnant before the age of 35 or 38 because afterwards it would be difficult. But now the gynecologists must also focus on paternal age and give this information to the couple. Yves Ménézo, an embryologist at the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction, said older men become less fertile because genetic defects build up in their sperm. In younger men, the damage is minor and can be repaired inside the fertilized egg. But in older men the amount of DNA damage can overwhelm the body's natural repair mechanisms. "We think there's a critical threshold of DNA damage and above that, the damage can no longer be repaired. When that happens, genetic mistakes get through to the embryo and you get an increase in miscarriages," Ménézo said. Jacques de Mouzon, a co-author at the French National Institute for Medical Research, said: "People say men are fertile into old age, 90 even. That may be true sometimes, but the product is different and there are more semen abnormalities as age advances. There is a decrease [in male fertility] and an increase in the spontaneous abortion rate after the age of 40 and especially after 45. It is necessary for men to try to have children before the ages of 40 to 45." Previous research has pointed to a slight increase in birth defects in babies born to older men. A 2005 study of 70,000 couples by epidemiologist Jorn Olsen at the University of California, Los Angeles, found a fourfold rise in Down's syndrome among babies born to men aged 50 and older. They were also more likely to have limb deformities. Dr Allan Pacey, a fertility expert at Sheffield University and secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "There is growing evidence from a number of studies to show that men are not totally immune from reproductive ageing. "Previous studies of couples trying to conceive naturally or undergoing IVF have shown that men over the age of about 40 are less fertile than younger men. Moreover, if they do achieve a pregnancy their partners are more likely to miscarry. This study reinforces the message that men aren't excused from reproductive ageing." Normally, men don't typically worry about reproductive ageing, but perhaps they should if the study is to be believed, as now, delayed fatherhood is also being linked to miscarriages, and birth deformities. ...

M:F ratio is reduced with increasing paternal age consistent with de novo genetic or genomic anomalies arising more frequently as men age

: J Autism Dev Disord. 2009 May 19. [Epub ahead of print] Links
Brief Report: Parental Age and the Sex Ratio in Autism.Anello A, Reichenberg A, Luo X, Schmeidler J, Hollander E, Smith CJ, Puleo CM, Kryzak LA, Silverman JM.
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

The male-to-female (M:F) ratio for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), typically about 4:1, appears to decrease with increasing paternal age, but this relationship has not been systematically tested. With 393 ASD cases from families with two or more ASD cases, we categorized paternal age into five age groups (<30, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45+) and found that the M:F ratio was significantly decreased with increasing paternal age groups and remained so after also adjusting for maternal age. No significant relationship between maternal age group and the M:F ratio was observed. This study suggests that the M:F ratio is reduced with increasing paternal age consistent with de novo genetic or genomic anomalies arising more frequently as men age and then conceive children.

PMID: 19452267 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

According to Miller, the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring of fathers older than 30 is a significant public health concern

According to Miller, the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring of fathers older than 30 is a significant public health concern, because average paternal ages are increasing.
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May 18, 2009

APA 2009
Schizophrenia Risk May Be Higher in Male Offspring of Young Fathers
Myra Partridge


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For almost 10 years, studies have shown that advanced paternal age may be a risk factor for schizophrenia in offspring. However, the risk of schizophrenia may also be higher in male offspring of fathers who are younger than 25 years, according to the results of a study presented at the 2009 American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

“An increased risk associated with younger fathers raises the possibility of different causal mechanisms for schizophrenia between this group and for offspring of older fathers,” said Brian Miller,1 lead study author and a fellow in the department of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia in Atlanta.

Miller and colleagues from universities in Finland and London conducted a meta-analysis of both published and unpublished data on paternal age and schizophrenia in offspring. “We performed a meta-analysis in order to better estimate the effect size of this association, considering the effects of gender and study design,” said Miller.

Incidence of schizophrenia was lowest in offspring of fathers aged 25 to 30 years. Compared with this group, the population attributable risk was found to be 10% higher for paternal age of 30 years or older and 4% higher for paternal age younger than 25 years.

Results confirmed that there is a significantly higher increase in risk of schizophrenia in the offspring of fathers older than 30 years, and there was no evidence of sexual dimorphism. According to Miller, the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring of fathers older than 30 is a significant public health concern, because average paternal ages are increasing.


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Reference
1. Miller BJ, Messias E, Miettunen J, et al. Meta-analysis of paternal age and schizophrenia risk in the offspring [NR3-023]. Poster presented May 18, 2009

Paternal Age May Also Affect ICSI Outcome in Oligozoospermic Patients

Paternal Age May Also Affect ICSI Outcome in Oligozoospermic Patients
May 15, 2009
Maternal age has been identified as a key determining factor in the success rates of IVF/ICSI procedures; however, relatively few studies have investigated the effect of advanced paternal age on ICSI outcome. Now, a recent retrospective observational study, published in the journal, Fertility and Sterility, suggests the negative effect of increased paternal age of oligozoospermic patients on implantation rate after ICSI. The study reports a 5% decrease in the chances of pregnancy for such couples with each year of increase in paternal age.

Contrasting Effects of Maternal and Paternal Age on Offspring Intelligence

Journal List > PLoS Med > v.6(3); Mar 2009
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Cannon, M. PLoS Med. 2009 March; 6(3): e1000042.
Published online 2009 March 10. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000042. PMCID: PMC2653550

Copyright : © 2009 Mary Cannon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Mary Cannon
See "Advanced Paternal Age Is Associated with Impaired Neurocognitive Outcomes during Infancy and Childhood" in volume 100 on page e40.
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References Both maternal and paternal ages are increasing in the developed world. The average age of mothers at time of childbirth has increased from 26.4 years in 1974 to 29.3 years in 2002, while the average age of fathers has increased from 29.2 years in 1980 to 32.1 years in 2002 [1]. This increase in the average parental age is most likely due to the societal trend for couples to delay starting a family for career or financial reasons. The concept of the female “biological clock” (the effect of increasing maternal age on reducing fertility) is well known and is a source of anxiety for many women [2]. In contrast, the consequences of increasing paternal age on fertility and other adverse reproductive outcomes are rarely discussed [3].
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring OutcomesEvidence is accumulating that advanced paternal age may exhibit a wider range of effects on the health and development of the offspring than increased maternal age (which is largely confined to risk for Down syndrome). Advanced paternal age is a risk factor for childhood conditions such as cleft lip and palate; childhood cancers and congenital heart defects [1]; and neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism [4], schizophrenia [5,6], epilepsy [7], and bipolar disorder [8]. Advanced paternal age also appears to affect mortality, and an intriguing analysis of family history data from European nobility found that older age of fatherhood (greater than 45 years) is associated with a reduction of about two years in the life span of daughters [9].
Linked Research Article
This Perspective discusses the following new study published in PLoS Medicine:
Saha S, Barnett AG, Foldi C, Burne TH, Eyles DW, et al. (2009) Advanced paternal age is associated with impaired neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood. PLoS Med 6(3): e1000040. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000040
Using a sample of children from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project, John McGrath and colleagues show that the offspring of older fathers exhibit subtle impairments on tests of neurocognitive ability during infancy and childhood.

Some of these associations (notably that for schizophrenia) are more extensively replicated than others, but the body of evidence implicating paternal age as a risk factor for a range of adverse offspring outcomes should not be ignored. What is the postulated mechanism for these associations?
Top Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age EffectMost commentators attribute these associations to some form of genetic effect, with the greatest consensus in favour of spontaneous mutation. Genomic studies show that sperm cells undergo more mutations than ova during the life span [10]. Thus delaying fatherhood might contribute to an increased incidence of mutations that can give rise to developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders in the population. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as hypermethylation, increase with age and may be an alternative explanation [11,12].
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References Intermediate PhenotypesRather than a direct genetic effect, paternal age could increase risk for a range of neuropsychiatric outcomes in an indirect manner by increasing the likelihood of an “at-risk” or precursor phenotype in offspring. Support for this hypothesis comes from a study by Weiser and colleagues, who analysed data from an Israeli cohort of 10,000 male conscripts and found that offspring of both very young fathers (less than 20 years) and older fathers (greater than 45 years) had impaired social function [13]. Sons of older mothers (greater than 40 years) also had poorer social function. Poor social function has been shown to be a precursor for many psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia [14].
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References Parental Age and Intelligence of OffspringA new study by John McGrath and colleagues in this issue of PLoS Medicine examines the association between paternal and maternal age and impaired neurocognitive ability in childhood (another putative intermediate phenotype) [15]. The authors use data from the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a large birth cohort of more than 50,000 individuals born between 1959 and 1965 in 12 centres in the United States, who were followed up throughout childhood. Cognitive measures were collected at three time points: eight months, four years, and seven years. The use of a cohort from the 1960s means that the association between parental age and offspring intelligence is largely unconfounded by the possible neurocognitive effects of assisted reproductive technology (which began in 1978) or the possible psychosocial effects of complex (or blended) stepfamily structures, which have become more common over the past decade.
McGrath and colleagues show remarkable contrasting effects of paternal and maternal age on the cognitive abilities of the offspring [15]. Increasing maternal age is associated with superior performance on intelligence tests in a linear fashion whereas increasing paternal age is associated with significantly poorer performance on five out of six of the measures tested.
A second notable aspect of this study is the effect of adjustment for socio-economic factors. Controlling for parental mental health and socio-economic status, measured using a composite score that indexes maternal and paternal education as well as family income, resulted in a marked attenuation of the effect of both maternal and paternal age on the intelligence scores. For instance, the average difference in IQ between the offspring of a father aged 20 and a father aged 50 decreases from six points to three points after adjustment for socio-economic factors.
These intriguing findings give rise to two questions: (1) Why should the offspring of older fathers, but not older mothers, have poorer performance on intelligence tests? and (2) If genetic effects are responsible, then what role do social factors play?
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References The Role of Social FactorsSocial advantage (in the form of economic security and increased education) may compensate to a certain extent for the biological risks in delaying motherhood [16]. McGrath and colleagues find that delayed fatherhood does not appear to convey this social advantage in the form of better cognitive test scores [15]. Is this due to some inherent difference in the way in which older fathers and older mothers interact with their children? Or is this due to spontaneous mutation—bearing in mind that studies in rodents show that paternal age significantly influences developmental and behavioural outcomes in offspring [12]? Of course, both effects could be operating in conjunction in humans. For instance, Reichenberg and colleagues have postulated that the incidence of genetic mutations may be influenced by age at fatherhood, which in turn may be influenced by the socio-cultural environment or by personality characteristics [4].
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References ConclusionMcGrath and colleagues show the importance of taking socio-economic factors into account when examining the issue of paternal age [15]. Could the paternal age effect on offspring intelligence be due to so-called residual confounding, whereby adjustment does not fully remove the effect of a confounder [17]? In other words, if we could adjust the association for every relevant socio-economic and interpersonal variable (both known and unknown) using precise measures, then perhaps we could eliminate the effect of paternal age on intelligence completely. New explanatory models are needed that can encompass socio-cultural and interpersonal factors as well as biological variables. Perhaps then we can decide when is the best time to be a mother…or father.
FootnotesMary Cannon is in the Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Beaumont Hospital, RCSI Education and Research Centre, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. E-mail: marycannon@rcsi.ie
Funding: MC is supported by a Clinician Scientist Award from the Health Research Board, Ireland, a Grable Independent Investigator award from NARSAD (US), and the Wellcome Trust. The funders played no role in preparing this article.
Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
Provenance: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed
Top
Effects of Paternal Age on Offspring Outcomes
Putative Genetic Mechanisms of Paternal Age Effect
Intermediate Phenotypes
Parental Age and Intelligence of Offspring
The Role of Social Factors
Conclusion
References ReferencesBray I, Gunnell D, Davey Smith G. Advanced paternal age: How old is too old? J Epid Comm Health. 2006;60:851–853.
Bewley S, Davies M, Braude P. Which career first? The most secure age for childbearing remains 20–35. BMJ. 2005;331:588–589. [PubMed]
Lewis BH, Legato M, Fisch H. Medical implications of the male biological clock. JAMA. 2006;296:2369–2371. [PubMed]
Reichenberg A, Gross R, Weiser M, Bresnahan M, Silverman J, et al. Advancing paternal age and autism. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:1026–1032. [PubMed]
Malaspina D, Harlap S, Fennig S, Heiman D, Nachon D, et al. Advancing paternal age and the risk of schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58:361–367. [PubMed]
Zammit S, Alleback P, Dalman C, Lundberg I, Hemmingson T, et al. Paternal age and risk for schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry. 2003;183:405–408. [PubMed]
Vestergaard M, Mork A, Madsen KM, Olsen J. Paternal age and epilepsy in the offspring. Eur J Epid. 2005;20:1003–1005.
Frans E, Sandlin S, Reichenberg A, Lichtenstein P, Langstrom N, et al. Advancing paternal age and bipolar disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65:1034–1040. [PubMed]
Gavrilov LA, Gavrilova NS. When should fatherhood stop? Science. 1997;277:17–21. [PubMed]
Buwe A, Guttenbach M, Schmid M. Effect of paternal age on the frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in human spermatozoa. Cytogenet Genome Res. 2005;111:213–228. [PubMed]
Perrin MC, Brown AS, Malaspina D. Aberrant epigenetic regulation could explain the relationship of paternal age to schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2007;33:1270–1273. [PubMed]
Garcia-Palomares S, Pertusa JF, Minarro J, Garcia-Perez MA, Hermenegildo C, et al. Long-term effects of delayed fatherhood in mice on postnatal development and behavioural traits of offspring. Biol Reprod. 2008;80:337–342. [PubMed]
Weiser M, Reichenberg A, Werbeloff N, Kleinhaus K, Lubin G, et al. Advanced parental age at birth is associated with poorer social functioning in adolescent males: Shedding light on a core feature of schizophrenia and autism. Schizophr Bull. 2008;34:1042–1046. [PubMed]
Cannon M, Jones PB, Gilvarry C, Rifkin L, McKenzie K, et al. Premorbid social adjustment in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: Similarities and differences. Am J Psychiatry. 1997;154:1544–1550. [PubMed]
Saha S, Barnett AG, Foldi C, Burne TH, Eyles DW, et al. Advanced paternal age is associated with impaired neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood. PLoS Med. 2009;6:e1000040. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000040.
Stein Z, Susser M. The risks of having children in later life. Social advantage may make up for biological disadvantage. BMJ. 2000;320:1681–1682. [PubMed]
Leon DA. Failed or misleading adjustment for confounding. Lancet. 1993;342:479–481. [PubMed]

Older Men Who Have Schizophrenic Children

James Watson and the Holy Grail
May 11, 2009
James Watson speaks with the UK's Telegraph about his quest for the "holy grail" of neuroscience, to use genetic research to uncover the cause of mental disorders and use that to treat and cure them. He says he is motivated by his son Rufus' schizophrenia, which has led him to be hospitalized, and Watson says that the decreasing cost of sequencing will make this work "feasible and affordable."

How About Funding A Campaign to Publicize the Harm to Offspring of Older Paternal Age?

James Watson, co-discoverer of what some call the secret of life, hopes now to unearth the cause of mental illness, he tells Philip Sherwell in Long Island.


Born in Chicago in 1928 to parents of Scottish and Irish stock, Mr Watson has been happily married to his wife Liz for four decades. They met when he was 39 and she was a 19-year-old faculty assistant.

Excess paternal age in apparently sporadic osteogenesis imperfecta.

Am J Med Genet. 2001 May 15;100(4):280-6. Links
Excess paternal age in apparently sporadic osteogenesis imperfecta.
Blumsohn A, McAllion SJ, Paterson CR.
Department of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland.

The objective of this study was to examine whether parental age is associated with the occurrence of apparently sporadic osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). We compared parental age and the joint distribution of maternal and paternal age with expected distributions based on statutory birth records for each year and location of birth. The study included patients with OI based in the United Kingdom. The study was restricted to cases born in England, Wales, and Scotland between 1961 and 1998. Subgroup analysis was by clinical type [Sillence et al., 1979: J Med Genet 16:101-116] and apparent mode of inheritance based on pedigree analysis. Of 730 eligible cases, 357 were apparently sporadic. The mean age of fathers at birth of children with apparently sporadic OI was 0.87 years greater than expected (P = 0.010; 95% confidence interval = 0.21 to 1.54 years). The relative risk was 1.62 for fathers in the highest quintile of paternal age compared with fathers in the lowest quintile. The magnitude of the paternal age excess did not differ significantly between Sillence types (analysis of variance P = 0.534). In sporadic cases, paternal age was 0.51 years greater than expected, given maternal age, year, and location of birth (P = 0.033). In contrast, in familial cases, there was no significant paternal age excess, and paternal age was not significantly different from that expected given maternal age. Increased paternal age is a significant risk factor for sporadic OI. This effect is not accounted for by increasing maternal age. The magnitude of the paternal age excess is small in comparison with that in some other autosomal dominant disorders.

Men’s Biological Clocks. Will the Risks of Fathering a Baby After Age 35 Start A New Dating Trend?

May 4

Men’s Biological Clocks. Will the Risks of Fathering a Baby After Age 35 Start A New Dating Trend?

Posted by admin in POW WOW SHOW Topic, Your Guide To Healthy Relationships Today’s 50 may be yesterday’s 30 in some aspects of men’s aging, but medical studies reveal this isn’t true for a 50 year old’s sperm. Men are learning about about the genetic risks of fathering a baby after age 35. Will their newly-found biological clocks start a new dating trend?

What is a biological clock?

It commonly refers to the declining fertility, increasing risk for fetal birth defects, and altered hormone levels experienced by women as they age. Abundant scientific evidence now suggests that men also have a biological clock.

What are some risks of fathering a child after age 40?

A team of UK and US researchers recently reported that children born to men over 40 had a six times higher risk of autism than those born to men under 30.

Other studies have linked older fathers to an increased risk of miscarriages, and to children with bipolar disorder and the rare birth disorders like dwarfism.

Researchers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons found that men older than 40 were more than twice as likely to have a child who develops schizophrenia as men in their 20’s.

Why is older fatherhood a new cause for concern?

The theory linking paternal age with an offspring’s health rests on spontaneous mutations in the genes of a man’s sperm cells as he ages. New studies refute the earlier theory that men could father children into their old age with no ill effects.

What is the ideal age for men to father children?

To minimize genetic abnormalities, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine has set an upper age limit of 40 years old for semen donors, while UK fertility clinics only accept sperm donations from men aged 39 and under.

Studies suggest that to minimize the risk of autism, the paternal age should be under 32.

Could a man’s biological clock start a new dating trend?

A young man’s biological clock may encourage him seek a serious relationship with a young woman who is ready and willing to have children before he reaches the age of 35 or 40. These young men will have fewer years to date cougars.

A young woman who desires children may be less likely to date a father figure, unless he agrees to use a sperm donor if they decide to have children after his 50th birthday. Or she may simply prefer to date men under age 35 to increase the odds of having healthy babies with a mate closer to her age.

If more men and women over 40 spend less time dating younger, will they find unexpected delights in dating each other? Let us know if you notice these new trends in your dating life.

Dedicated to your relationship happiness,

Hadley

The average age of American men marrying for the first time is now 28

Say Yes. What Are You Waiting For?

By Mark Regnerus
Sunday, April 26, 2009

Spring is here, that glorious season when young men's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, as the poet Tennyson once suggested. "Lightly" is right.



For Better or Worse, Sooner Rather Than Later
The average age of American men marrying for the first time is now 28. That's up five full years since 1970 and the oldest average since the Census Bureau started keeping track. If men weren't pulling women along with them on this upward swing, I wouldn't be complaining. But women are now taking that first plunge into matrimony at an older age as well. The age gap between spouses is narrowing: Marrying men and women were separated by an average of more than four years in 1890 and about 2.5 years in 1960. Now that figure stands at less than two years. I used to think that only young men -- and a minority at that -- lamented marriage as the death of youth, freedom and their ability to do as they pleased. Now this idea is attracting women, too.


In my research on young adults' romantic relationships, many women report feeling peer pressure to avoid giving serious thought to marriage until they're at least in their late 20s. If you're seeking a mate in college, you're considered a pariah, someone after her "MRS degree." Actively considering marriage when you're 20 or 21 seems so sappy, so unsexy, so anachronistic. Those who do fear to admit it -- it's that scandalous.

How did we get here? The fault lies less with indecisive young people than it does with us, their parents. Our own ideas about marriage changed as we climbed toward career success. Many of us got our MBAs, JDs, MDs and PhDs. Now we advise our children to complete their education before even contemplating marriage, to launch their careers and become financially independent. We caution that depending on another person is weak and fragile. We don't want them to rush into a relationship. We won't help you with college tuition anymore, we threaten. Don't repeat our mistakes, we warn.

Sara, a 19-year-old college student from Dallas, equated thinking about marrying her boyfriend with staging a rebellion. Her parents "want my full attention on grades and school because they want me to get a good job," she told me. Understandable. But our children now sense that marrying young may be not simply foolish but also wrong and socially harmful. And yet today, as ever, marriage wisely entered into remains good for the economy and the community, good for one's personal well-being, good for wealth creation and, yes, good for the environment, too. We are sending mixed messages.

This is not just an economic problem. It's also a biological and emotional one. I realize that it's not cool to say that, but my job is to map trends, not to affirm them. Marriage will be there for men when they're ready. And most do get there. Eventually. But according to social psychologists Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs, women's "market value" declines steadily as they age, while men's tends to rise in step with their growing resources (that is, money and maturation). Countless studies -- and endless anecdotes -- reinforce their conclusion. Meanwhile, women's fertility is more or less fixed, yet they largely suppress it during their 20s -- their most fertile years -- only to have to beg, pray, borrow and pay to reclaim it in their 30s and 40s. Although male fertility lives on, it doesn't hold out forever, either: Studies emerging from Europe and Australia note that a couple's chances of conceiving fall off notably when men pass the age of 40, and that several developmental disorders are slightly more common in children of older fathers.

Of course, there's at least one good statistical reason to urge people to wait on the wedding. Getting married at a young age remains the No. 1 predictor of divorce. So why on earth would I want to promote such a disastrous idea? For three good reasons:

First, what is considered "early marriage" by social scientists is commonly misunderstood by the public. The best evaluations of early marriage -- conducted by researchers at the University of Texas and Penn State University -- note that the age-divorce link is most prominent among teenagers (those who marry before age 20). Marriages that begin at age 20, 21 or 22 are not nearly so likely to end in divorce as many presume.

Second, good social science pays attention to gender differences. Most young women are mature enough to handle marriage. According to data from the government's National Survey of Family Growth, women who marry at 18 have a better shot at making a marriage work than men who marry at 21. There is wisdom in having an age gap between spouses. For women, age is (unfortunately) a debit, decreasing fertility. For men, age can be a credit, increasing their access to resources and improving their maturity, thus making them more attractive to women. We may all dislike this scenario, but we can't will it away.

Third, the age at which a person marries never actually causes a divorce. Rather, a young age at marriage can be an indicator of an underlying immaturity and impatience with marital challenges -- the kind that many of us eventually figure out how to avoid or to solve without parting. Unfortunately, well-educated people resist this, convinced that there actually is a recipe for guaranteed marital success that goes something like this: Add a postgraduate education to a college degree, toss in a visible amount of career success and a healthy helping of wealth, let simmer in a pan of sexual variety for several years, allow to cool and settle, then serve. Presto: a marriage with math on its side. ...

Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of "Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers."