Pregnancies in women (over 35) used to be called “geriatric pregnancies” (a horrible term) and are now called “advanced maternal age”. Everyone knows about the increased risks for chromosomal abnormalities in the offspring of older women. However, most people do not know that men over the age of 40 (called “advanced paternal age”, which most people haven’t even heard of) also have an increased risk of various chromosomal abnormalities AND also autosomal dominant de novo conditions (achondroplasia and other skeletal dysplasia syndromes) and also (according to some research) mental conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, ASD, and intellectual disability.
The medical establishment perpetuates the ignorance of these risks in older fathers by not talking/counseling patients about them, whereas older mothers are EXTENSIVELY counseled ad nauseam on their risks associated with advanced maternal age (sometimes close to the point of being shamed). This is just another example of misogyny, as the idea of women being old & expired once they hit a certain age is being perpetuated, whereas most people aren’t even aware that being an older father comes with risks to offspring as well. I feel like if more people were educated about these risks, women would face less disproportionate judgement & discrimination for being older (many men view women past the age of 25 as worthless or expired) in the dating world, and in society in general.
The ignorance of advanced paternal age perpetuates this misogynistic idea that the “value” of a man simply increases with age, whereas the value of a woman decreases. Hence we have men in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who think they’re at their “prime” and feel entitled to dating women in their teens, 20s, and 30s, while thinking that women closer to their age are old and expired. I really wish more people were aware of these risks so men could get off their patriarchal male-superiority high horses and realize they are mortal too.
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Tbf I feel like the fact that advanced maternal age pregnancies used to be more likely to kill the mother plays a large role in people being more socially aware of it. I suspect if having sex over 40 was killing men we would hear more about that and the fact that it also comes with genetic risks.
Male alcoholism also degrades the quality of sperm and raises the risk not only of birth defects but also of miscarriage in the mother- which right now can be a death sentence in some places.
This is why sperm donation has age limitations. I’ve seen the max sperm donor age set as low as 35 and as high as 45 but it is most commonly set at 39.
Also the health condition of the father and his drinking habits matters too regardless of age.
Apart from the more prominent danger of the mother to die, it may be, that the risk due to older men may be much smaller… I do not know any figures but 20% complications due to mothers age may be compared here to 0.01% when the father is old…. Just saying I need numbers to make an educated comment, without numbers your post has not much meaning, not an attack, just an idea for why they don‘t talk about that
Men smoking and drinking before conceiving can also severely affect the placenta quality, causing restricted fetal growth and other serious problems
I remember people actively saying, “Men can be fathers at any age.”
Now that you mention it, I’m on my second pregnancy and my provider never once even asked about my husband’s age. He is older than me, not by a lot, but they don’t even care about collecting that data.
It’s suspected that’s why so many European royal families’ sons had hemophilia.
Several of Queen Victoria’s daughters were carriers.
Her father was 51 when she was born.
Not to mention, the placenta is almost exclusively built from the father’s genes. I can edit later to link the study that shows this if people care to see it.
Geriatric fathers cause problematic placentas. Since the placenta is how the fetus interfaces with the mother’s body, passing stuff back and forth including hormones, and on which the fetus depends for literally everything, an abnormal placenta causes many many many issues, including not only pregnancy loss, but also things like gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, etc etc.
Do people not know this about older men? I feel like it was common knowledge ~12 years ago when we first started seriously thinking about having kids.
That’s really interesting about ADHD and ASD considering that they are strongly heritable. My paternal grandfather was in his 40s when my dad was born, and he definitely has aDHD and is on the spectrum. But I am too and my dad was 20 when I was born.
So I wonder if one older father can start a generational chain of neurodivergence
We, uh, still call them geriatric pregnancies. Most of the patients have a good laugh about it, but yeah. It’s a sucky term
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I don’t know where you are, but my local health authority got a massive public kicking five-ten years ago for raising the issue of paternal age in fertility services.
And it wasn’t ‘new’ knowledge when they brought it in. They were right; both men and women need to be aware of the way in which fertility declines. I’m not totally up-to-date but fertility for women starts to decline in the twenties but is not generally enough of a decline to be an issue. It declines faster and – IIRC – not linearly in your thirties, dropping off sharply in late thirties. The risks of ‘older’ pregnancy in developed counties are, of course, far less than they used to be due to medical advances. That is only relevant if you can become pregnant in the first place.
We need to step away from the idea that making women aware of their decreasing fertility as their thirties progress is misogynistic. Having knowledge about your body and your fertility is a good thing.
Judging and shaming women as ‘worthless or expired’ at 25 is clearly bollocks and should be exposed as such.
This reminds us that a lot of medical advice is hearsay and opinion, not as evidence-based as they tell us.
I’m gonna blame all of this on Viagra