"Since 1980 there has been about a 40 percent increase in 35- to 49-year-old men fathering children, and a 20 percent decrease in fathers under 30,"

Father's Age May Contribute to Genetic Birth Defects
07 June, 2006 01:27 GMT


Sperm declines in quality as men age, swimming more slowly and becoming more genetically defective, researchers reported on Monday. The finding adds to some recent studies that have found that even though men make fresh sperm every day and can father children well into old age, they become less fertile and also tend to have more children with birth defects.
"This study shows that men who wait until they are older to have children are not only risking difficulties conceiving, they could also be increasing the risk of having children with genetic problems," Andrew Wyrobek of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said in a statement.

For centuries, this tendency toward birth defects with aging was blamed on the woman, whose fertility plummets with age and disappears at menopause. Women are born with all their eggs, and these egg cells mature and ripen as women age.

Men Have Biological Clock

Older eggs are often defective and contribute both to lower female fertility and a tendency to genetic defects such as Down syndrome.

"Although it is well known that as women age, they are at increased risk for infertility, spontaneous abortion, and genetic and chromosomal defects among offspring, the association of male aging with these outcomes has been less well characterized," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our research suggests that men, too, have a biological time clock only it is different," said Brenda Eskenazi of the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health.

Abnormal DNA Fragmentation

For their study the researchers examined sperm samples from 97 men aged 22 to 80, all working at or retired from a government research laboratory.


They disqualified current cigarette smokers and men with current fertility or reproductive problems or who had undergone chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer.

They examined the sperm for obvious features which includes the ability to swim quickly, and harder-to-find qualities such as what is known as DNA fragmentation index a measure of damage that has been associated with male fertility, successful conception, and sustained pregnancy.

Men usually started to have an abnormal DNA fragmentation index at the age of 56, the researchers found.

They said it was important to understand the effects of men having children at ever-older ages.

"Since 1980 there has been about a 40 percent increase in 35- to 49-year-old men fathering children, and a 20 percent decrease in fathers under 30," they wrote.

Study: Bipolar Disorder Linked to Older Dads

Study: Bipolar Disorder Linked to Older Dads
at：2008-12-31 05:25:14 Click: 12
Schizophrenia, autism and now bipolar disorder are all linked with older fathers. Here is the Associated Press story by Lindsey Tanner that ran two days ago discussing the newest study.

CHICAGO (AP) — Children born to older fathers face a greater chance of developing bipolar disorder, according to one of the largest studies linking mental illness with advanced paternal age.

Previous research has connected schizophrenia and autism with older dads, and a Danish study published last year added bipolar disorder to the list. The new study led by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute strengthens the evidence.

The leading theory is that older men's sperm may be more likely to develop mutations. Even so, the odds of a person becoming bipolar are so low that the study's authors said it shouldn't dissuade older men from becoming fathers.

Researchers analyzed Swedish national registry data from more than 80,000 people, including 13,428 with bipolar disorder who were born between 1932 and 1991.

The risks started increasing around age 40 but were strongest among those 55 and older. Children born to these dads were 37 percent more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those born to men in their 20s.

They also faced more than double the risk of developing bipolar disorder before age 20. Scientists call that early onset disease, and while they have long known that bipolar disorder tends to run in families, early onset disease has been thought to be most strongly linked with genetics.

The age of the mothers didn't appear to be much of a factor.

The study, released Monday, appears in September's Archives of General Psychiatry.

While the findings don't explain what might cause some older men to have bipolar children, it "reinforces the notion that there's a strong biological component to this," said Dr. Harold Pincus, vice chair of psychiatry at Columbia University.

Bipolar disorder causes dramatic mood swings, from deep depression to manic highs. It affects more than 5 million Americans.

Lifetime risks for it have been estimated at roughly 1 percent to 4 percent. The study results suggest that having an older father might increase that slightly. The findings aren't definitive, but even if the link proves to be real, Pincus noted that still means most people with older fathers won't ever get bipolar disorder.

Factors involving mothers, including age and health, have long been thought to be most closely linked with birth defects and other abnormalities. But the new study adds to mounting evidence that paternal factors also play an important role, said New York University researcher Susan Harlap.

Sperm are produced throughout a man's lifetime, and scientists believe that as men age there is a greater chance for mutations that could contribute to disorders in their children.

Advanced paternal age also has been linked with birth defects, and some sperm banks have age limits for donors because of that.

While important for scientists, the study results shouldn't discourage older men from fathering children, said Emma Frans, the lead author.

She said the results suggest that similar mechanisms might contribute to risks for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and autism. Each of these disorders is thought to have many causes including biologic and outside factors.

On the Net:
Archives: http://www.archgenpsychiatry.com
National Institutes of Health bipolar information: http://tinyurl.com/2wjbv7








Comments
Les at : 2008-12-31 08:25:35
Type 1 diabetes, MS, Alzheimer's, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, breast, prostate, leukemia, and early childhood cancer are among the many other disorders that rise in incidence with increasing paternal age. Some sperm US banks refuse sperm of a man past his 35th birthday to try an avoid paternal age related genetic disease. By the age of 33-35 men are rapidly accumulating mutations in their sperm making cells. http://how-old-is-too-old.blogspot.com/

- + Does a younger dad mean a healthier child?

minutes ago, 12:20 EST, December 15, 2008 Toolbox

- + Does a younger dad mean a healthier child?
Medicine & Health / Health
New studies from Tel Aviv University suggest that waiting until a man can give his son "all the advantages" may have a disadvantage, too.




Tel Aviv University researchers found in several consecutive studies that older dads are more likely to have boys with autism and lower IQs. Most recently, they found that the older a father's age, the greater the chance that his son will display poor social abilities as a teen. Dr. Mark Weiser from TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and his team of researchers are now studying what causes this phenomenon.

"There is a growing body of data showing that an advanced age of parents puts their kids at risk for various illnesses," says Dr. Weiser. "Some illnesses, such as schizophrenia, appear to be more common the older parents get. Doctors and psychologists are fascinated by this, but don't really understand it. We want to know how it works."

Questions and Answers

To explore this important question, Dr. Weiser looked at data collected by the Israeli army. Subjects included more than 450,000 male teens, aged 16 and 17. The teens were asked these questions: How many good friends do you have? Do you have a girlfriend? Do you generally prefer to be with or without a group of friends? How often do you go out on Friday evenings? Do you tend to be at the center of a party?

Controlling for the variables of IQ, mother's age, socioeconomic status and birth order, the researchers found that the prevalence of poor social functioning increased by 50% in boys with fathers 45 years old and up.

Cause for Concern?


Dr. Weiser, who also works at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer hospital, cautions that the results are far from conclusive. "It could be that men with poorer social skills get married later in life, and therefore transmit this characteristic to their boys. But our studies attempted to control for this variable by looking at brothers from the same father," he explains.

He also suggests that older men shouldn't change their minds about having children since the statistical risk is relatively minor. "The effects of a father's age on the health of his son are quite small, and many of the most dramatic effects in this study are driven by dads in their 50s," says Dr. Weiser. "The difference in risk between someone who is 35 or 45 is so small that it's irrelevant."

Dr. Weiser continues, "But the findings are interesting for clinicians who are looking at the bigger picture of how parental age affects the mental functioning of offspring and what mechanisms are at play in that functioning." And Dr. Weiser doesn't rule out the possibility that older fathers may have better resources for getting their boys tested for autism when symptoms arise.

Published in Oxford Journal's Schizophrenia Bulletin, the study builds on Dr. Weiser's previous research on parental age, autism and IQ scores.

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University

The biological clock ticks for men too

The biological clock ticks for men too

As Sri Lanka’s pioneering Reproductive Health Centre Vindana celebrates a 10-year success story, Dr. N. Pandiyan, Chief Consultant in Andrology and Reproductive Medicine of Chettinad Health City in India reveals some disturbing statistics on reproduction while pointing out the benefits of Assisted Reproductive Techniques. Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports, Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Women should not allow their biological clock to tick if they wish to conceive and have a healthy baby, is repeated over and over again. Put baby before career, for one can always go back to work and catch up on the career but if time passes having a baby may not be possible.

Now comes a strong message that the other vital partner in the making of a baby, the father, too should not leave it too late.
With disturbing statistics that 1 in 6 couples need help in achieving a pregnancy, the advice from Dr. N. Pandiyan, Chief Consultant in Andrology and Reproductive Medicine of Chettinad Health City in India, is indeed timely.


Dr. Pandiyan
“Infertility is an age-related disease of the reproductive system and it is a race against time,” he says, explaining that two factors independently influence the prognosis of infertility – the age of the couple, particularly the woman, but also of the man and the duration of infertility.

Dealing with the age of the father, he points out that men over 40 years old had a “negative effect” on pregnancy, while there was also an increase in the miscarriage rates.

The adverse effects of older fathers include a higher mortality in the offspring of those who are 45 years old or more, with that going into adulthood as well. “Advanced paternal age has been associated with a higher risk of spontaneous miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term birth, congenital malformations, childhood cancer, epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia in the offspring,” says Dr. Pandiyan.

Producing data to prove his point, he says studies on age and incidence of infertility show that those in the age group 20-24 had a 6% incidence of infertility; 25 to 29 -- 9%; 30 to 34 – 15%; 35 to 39 – 30% and 40 to 44 – 64%.

The lifestyle of the father also plays a major role, The Sunday Times understands. Quoting research, Dr. Pandiyan says that obesity increases the risk of male sub-fertility. The use of laptop computers on the lap and cell phones and also stress, have been implicated as possible “causative factors” for male sub-fertility.

Smoking impairs semen parameters and fertility while alcohol abusers have poorer semen samples, according to further research. “Drugs, both medical and recreational, impair male fertility, as does exposure to gonadotoxins from the environment and occupation.”


In the Vindana laboratory: Blood samples taken for testing.
Leaving aside the father’s impact, Dr. Pandiyan goes back to the time, after conception when the baby boy is still a foetus in the mother’s womb.

“Prevention of male sub-fertility starts peri-conceptually,” he explains, adding that healthy mothers give birth to healthy children. “A mother’s micro and macro environment influences the child’s reproductive health. The in-utero environment influences adult life and may also influence the reproductive health of the children.”

Pointing an accusing finger at many environmental contaminants that can affect reproductive health, this expert on andrology zeroes in on “endocrine-disrupting chemicals” which could affect hormones in the human body.

Dr. Pandiyan picks on bisphenol A (BPA) found in hard plastic, water and baby bottles, food containers, the lining of metal, food and drink cans, pacifiers and baby toys and dental sealants. Phthalates, the other culprit according to him, are a family of chemicals utilized to soften plastics used in medical devices, food wrap, flooring, wall coverings, personal care products (perfumes, lotions, cosmetics, hair spray), lacquers, varnishes and wood finishes and coatings.

Environmental contaminants during any life stage can increase the risk of adverse health effects, he says, stressing however that exposure during “susceptible windows” can result in irreversible effects that can have either immediate, lifelong or even intergenerational impacts on health.

“Humans are exposed daily to a mixture of environmental contaminants in air, water, food and consumer products. Environmental tobacco smoke, lead, mercury and phthalates are detected in nearly all members of the population. Melamine has recently been implicated in reproductive and urinary disorders,” he says.


Smoking impairs semen parameters and fertility
In the case of fertility problems, the world has advanced and many couples have experienced the joy of parenthood through Assisted Reproductive Techniques. (ART).

Although as Dr.Pandiyan stresses conception in the privacy of the bedroom is any day better than high-tech ART centres, for some the only hope of holding a baby would come through such techniques which mimic nature or give a helping hand to nature.

Having a baby is an investment

Is having a baby a luxury or a basic necessity? If needy couples have fertility problems should their yearnings for a baby remain unfulfilled with additional heartache being faced due to the barbs of malicious relatives?

If a person wants to buy a car, banks give loans, why shouldn’t the same apply for a much more important life-time investment of having a baby who would grow up to be a person who contributes to society, asks Dr. Pandiyan.

He urges that an insurance or loan scheme be introduced, taking into consideration that fertility issues are similar to any other disease. “Otherwise countries need to follow the Brunei model where the couple pays for the IVF cycle and the government pays for the drugs.”

Assisted Reproductive Techniques are costly because of the high cost of medication, it is learnt. The parents of the first baby born at Vindana underwent ART free of charge, it is understood.

101 babies in 10 years

Ten years and 101 babies later, it was celebration time for the Vindana Reproductive Health Centre last weekend.

While Vindana had invited two of its major supporters during the initial stages, Prof. Ariff Bongso and Dr. N. Pandiyan, to be part of their celebrations, the major focus was in fact a series of workshops to share the knowledge of their multidisciplinary team.


Prof. Seneviratne
Considered one of the foremost scientists on infertility in Asia, Prof. Bongso is Research Professor and Leader of the Reproductive Stem Cell Sciences group in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Co-Leader of the Regenerative Medicine group of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

Vindana can justifiably be proud of its achievements in the past 10 years. Starting with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1998 it has expanded to setting up a state-of-the-art sperm bank, egg sharing and also donation programme, Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection using Testicular Sperm Aspiration and pregnancies using frozen and later thawed embryos, to put a smile on the face of couples with fertility issues.

The first IVF pregnancy managed and facilitated by a totally local team, saw the birth of a bouncy baby girl on July 1, 2002. Now she is a pretty six-year-old.

As Vindana steps into its 11th year, its sights are set on expansion into and linkages with affiliated fields such as genetics, molecular biology and in-vitro tissue biology, says its Chairman Prof. Harsha Seneviratne, well-known Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, adding that they will also help any other programme which hopes to assist couples facing fertility issues.

New study backs parent age-autism link

New study backs parent age-autism link

Last Updated: 2008-12-12 9:12:21 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Advanced parental age does indeed appear to boost autism risk in children, and the risk is seen with both mothers and fathers, new research shows.

"What we found was that actually it's both parents age, and when you control for one parent's age you still see the effect of the other parent's age, and vice versa," Dr. Maureen Durkin of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, the lead researcher of the study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, told Reuters Health.

The findings may offer clues to understanding the causes of autism and why it's on the rise, but they shouldn't be used to guide family planning decisions, Durkin said. Even though the oldest child born to two older parents is three times as likely to be autistic than a middle or youngest child with younger parents, she explained, there's still a 97 percent chance that the higher-risk child will be perfectly fine. "The vast majority of children don't develop autism," she emphasized.

Several studies have suggested links between a father's age or the age of both parents and a child's likelihood of having autism. The current study included twice as many autism cases as any other research on this issue to date, which made it possible to tease out the effects of both maternal and paternal age.

The researchers looked at 253,347 children born in 1994 at 10 sites included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. There were 1,251 children who met standard criteria for an autism spectrum disorder at age 8 for whom information on both parents' age was available.

After the researchers accounted for factors that might influence the results

Paternal age: are the risks of infecundity and miscarriage higher when the man is aged 40 years or over?

Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique. 2005 Nov;53 Spec No 2:2S47-55.Related Articles, Links
Paternal age: are the risks of infecundity and miscarriage higher when the man is aged 40 years or over?

De La Rochebrochard E, Thonneau P.

Unité Inserm-Ined 569, Hôpital de Bicêtre, 82, rue du Général-Leclerc, 94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre. roche@ined.fr

BACKGROUND: Maternal age of 35 years or over is a well-known risk factor for human reproduction that has been extensively investigated by demographers and epidemiologists. However, the possibility of a paternal age effect has rarely been considered. We carried out review of the literature to investigate the effect of paternal age on the risks of infecundity and miscarriage. METHODS: We carried out a MEDLINE search and checked the exhaustiveness of our reference list. RESULTS: We identified 19 articles analysing the effect of paternal age. Epidemiological studies provided evidence that paternal age older than 35-40 years affects infecundity. However, the few studies based on data from assisted reproductive techniques (especially IVF with ovum donation) do not confirm this finding. All studies analysing the effect of paternal age on the risk of miscarriage showed an increased risk in men aged 35-40 years or over. Other studies have shown some evidence for a paternal age effect on late foetal deaths. CONCLUSION: The risks of infecundity and miscarriage increase with paternal age. Two main hypotheses can be considered. First, these risks increase after the age of 35-40 years. However, a later paternal age effect (after 45-50 years) cannot be excluded. Second, due to the interaction of the ages of the two partners, the risks of infecundity and miscarriage may be higher when both partners are older (woman aged 35 years or over and man aged 40 years or over).

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 16471144 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]