Older men a pregnancy risk says expert
3 November, 2000
Men play a greater role in the problems associated with ‘delayed parenthood’ than commonly thought, according to a leading international fertility expert.
Presenting at the 11th International Congress of Endocrinology, Professor Rune Eliasson of Stockholm’s Sophiahemmet Hospital said the age of the male partner was increasingly associated with conception problems and birth defects.
Contrary to what was commonly thought, he said the age of the female partner was not the only determinant in pregnancy and birth outcomes.
A recently published UK study of 12,000 couples found that women with partners in their forties took longer to become pregnant than those with partners in their twenties. The study found that the time it took to become pregnant was influenced not only by the age of the woman, but also of her partner.
‘Men were foolish to believe that their fertility was unaffected by age. Virility is certainly not the same as fertility,” Professor Eliasson said.
Professor Eliasson said demographic studies in Sweden, Germany and Japan showed that very few children were born to men over the age of 60 years.
Several researchers had also found that the risk of giving birth to a child with abnormalities was increased by the age of the father, as well as the mother. And in some countries, it had resulted in a recommendation not to use men older than 40 years as donors of semen for artificial donor insemination.
Last Reviewed: 03 November 2000
