Health experts warn that older fathers could potentially pose a health risk to their children, as several older actors in Hollywood includingAl Pacino, 83, andRobert De Niro, 79, announce they are becoming fathers.
A studypublished in Maturitas, an international journal of midlife health, suggested that the offspring of men over the age of 45 could have “birth defects” and “childhood autism” though chances are still low.
“Older guys have been having babies since biblical days. It’s not a new phenomenon. What we didn’t understand was they might be producing kids with a higher risk of problems,” Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine, toldNBC News.
Another study published in theNational Library of Medicinefound that the older a father is, the more likely his offspring will acquire congenital diseases such as heart malformations and mental health disorders like autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, low IQ level as well as ADHD.
Dr. Gloria Bachmann, associate dean for women’s health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School toldNBC News, “Men should be aware that they, too, go through the same reproductive aging cycle as women, despite the fact that they don’t have menopause.”
“The absolute risk does remain relatively low,” Stanford University School of Medicine researcher Dr. Michael Eisenberg toldNBC News. “For an individual, it may not be as meaningful. But certainly on a population level, if we’re looking at societal changes where parents are getting older, then it may be this measurable increase in some of these disorders.”
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He noted to the outlet that men accumulate about two mutations in their sperm’s DNA every year, on average, which is why the risks of their child getting a genetic abnormality increases with age.
source: people.com
