Dads Are Older Than Ever

Tick tick tick… that’s the sound of your biological clock ticking guys!!

Study finds men in the US are becoming new dads later in life.  CNN reports the average age of a father in 1972 was 27.4 but the average age of a father in 2015 was 30.9. Also men having children over the age of 40 more than doubled from 4.1% to 8.9%. Plus men over 50 having children went from 0.5% to 0.9%. Out of the recorded 169 million births over the last 4 decades the oldest father was 88 while the youngest was 11.

So often studies focus on the “limitations” of women having children at an older age which are usually skewed. Most of the research on child bearing ages of women is based on a  400 year old census from women in rural France. Talk about inaccuracies!! Women over 35 can still safely have children! If you’ve ever been worried about having a baby with a “birth defect” due to your age the chances only double from 0.5% to 1%. You never really hear about how a man’s age can effect the health of a child though, this study does however.

Live Science reports children of older fathers are at higher risk of autism, schizophrenia, pediatric cancers, psychosis, suicide attempts, substance abuse, and more due to mutations in sperm that increase with age. Another study found  the children of fathers 45 and older were 3.5 times more likely to develop autism, 13 times more likely to develop ADHD, 24 times more likely to develop bipolar disorder, and a 60% higher likelihood of getting failing grades.

Of course not all older fathers will have children with these “birth defects” but the risks become much higher!!

How do you think men having children older has effected our current society?