EBD Blog

In the September-October issue, Psychology Today magazine carried coverage of the father’s-age issue. Under the headline of “A Man’s Shelf Life,” Mark Teich interprets recent developments for a general audience.

“Everybody was familiar with the concept of women’s biological clock, but when we introduced ‘male’ to the equation, the reaction was ‘What are you talking about? Men can have children at any age,’” recalls urologist Harry Fisch, director of the Male Reproductive Center at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and author of The Male Biological Clock. “It became a social issue. Men do not like to be told they have a problem.”

Nonetheless, a virtual tidal wave of recent research has made it irrefutable: Not only does male fertility decrease decade by decade, especially after age 35, but aging sperm can be a significant and sometimes the only cause of severe health and developmental problems in offspring, including autism, schizophrenia, and cancer. The older the father, the higher the risk. But what’s truly noteworthy is not that infertility increases with age—to some degree, we’ve known that all along—but rather that older men who can still conceive may have such damaged sperm that they put their offspring at risk for many types of disorders and disabilities.

There is not much new in the analysis, but it is accessible. Also, it will be read by many more people than the more esoteric treatments that are generally available. Link to the print version of Mr. Teich’s article. Flash of the electrons to Leslie Feldman—she wrote EBD Blog’s treatment of the topic (see “fathers’ age” among the pages)—for bringing it to my attention.