Fatherhood : men are increasingly older

smikemikey1/epictura

Published the 01.09.2017 at 18h22

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The focus is often on women, said to be of increasingly older when they begin a pregnancy. But this is also true of men.
A study published in the journal Human Reproduction suggests that paternal age has been constantly increasing since the past few decades. Conducted in the United States, the work shows as well that men have, on average, three and a half years more than 40 years ago when they become fathers.

Thus, the average age of fathers has increased from 27.4 years in 1974 to 30.9 years in 2015. Over this same period, the percentage of father more than 40 years old at the birth of their child has more than doubled (from 4.1 % to 8.9 %), while those over 50 years of age increased from 0.5 % to 0.9 %. The data takes into account all births in the United States between 1972 and 2015, is 169 million babies.

The diploma is delaying the birth

Has varying degrees, this increase in paternal age is found regardless of the social environment, the ethnic group or place of residence. It is among Americans of vietnamese origin or the japanese found the “older” fathers – they are older, on average, 36 years of age at the time of the birth of their child. Moreover, most fathers have a high level of education, the more they tend to be older when they bring forth. Thus, male graduates of a license have, on average, a 33.3 years old at the time of the birth.

A point of view of the strict fertility, this seems of no consequence : the window for reproduction is larger in men than in women. Moreover, in the study, the father the oldest had 88 years old (and the youngest, 11 years old).

But for the health of children, increased paternal age may have implications in terms of epidemiology. In fact, each year, the men undergo about two new mutations in their DNA of the sperm (millions of genes).

Light surrisques

If the impact of these genetic mutations is not well known, some studies suggest that having an elderly father increases the risk of autism, mental illness, of some pediatric cancers and rare genetic diseases.
Women who have a partner aged also have a lightweight surrisque of miscarriage and may face greater challenges to become pregnant. But don’t panic : here it is a question of risk at a population level, and not an individual.

The study also examined the age of the women, and confirms that it increases at the moment of birth – even more so than that of men. Maternal age rose from 24.7 years in 1972 to 28.6 years in 2015.

If men to delay their fatherhood, it is for the same reasons as the women, the researchers explain. Namely : the availability of contraception, the reduction in the number of unplanned pregnancies and the interest of couples for their professional careers.