This research is not publicized so almost no one knows of the expected upswing in cases due to rising paternal age.

Paternal ages below or above 35 years old are associated with a different risk of schizophrenia in the offspring.Wohl M, Gorwood P.

Question:
When should men stop fathering babies due to the risk of the child being born with serious neurological abnormalities?

Choices:
35
38
41
44
47
50
50+

 

Could you please provide a link to this research... you got my attention!

Schizophrenia Risk and the Male Germ Line

"The most irrefutable finding is our demonstration that a father’s age is a major risk factor for schizophrenia. We were the first group to show that schizophrenia is linearly related to paternal age and that the risk is tripled for the offspring of the oldest groups of fathers. This finding has been born out in every single cohort study that has looked at paternal age and the risk for schizophrenia" also Dolores Malaspina

For the 35 as the year when the risk begins to become statistically significant this is the link;Paternal Ages below and above 35 are associated with a different risk of schizophrenia in offspring
Advanced Paternal Age: How old is too old?

Here are a few links on a topic that is kept under the radar screen. There are too many affected children these days for me to keep quiet.

quote:

Here are a few links on a topic that is kept under the radar screen.

Why is it being kept quiet?

Xanadu,
I'm afraid there is so much financial profit in chronic diseases such as autism, schizophrenia, diabetes1, MS, hemophilia, Alzheimer's, cancers, etc. etc. that there is a strong motivation to keep the science about the male biological clock very secret. There is also a major effort by those who want to keep paternal age rising using PR firms TV, People Magazine other media, scientific text books, Viagra ads etc. etc. to reinforce the myth that male gametes are alway "fresh" and older fathers are virile.

Isn't there some evidence also of a correlation between age of male parent and rising instances of autism ?

Yes, I've read that as well frank.

When I became pregnant with Dustin, Sagus was 31 and with Sylvan he was 33. Both of my sons are Autistic.

For people wanting to have their own children later in life, it is suggested that they use the same technology that sub-fertile people do: calculate the 'fertile' period and have sex around that time.

In older couples this may mean avoiding sex for a week or two before the fertile time. This is to help guarantee male potency. It is theorized that if less-than-fresh (i.e. degraded) sperm encounters the egg, it may produce fetal defects. Sperm can live for up to five days in the woman's reproductive tract. By that time it is past its sell-by date. So having sex closer to the fertile period, and avoiding sex prior to the fertile period, is a good strategy.

This information has been out there for at least a decade. Annie, I cannot believe this is to keep the treatment industry healthy. More likely male ego. Early research was all about the mother's age. They didn't even look for a paternal-ago correlation. Go figger.

babyhrower
I think it is mainly the pharmaceutical industry, but not only this industry, that does not want the paternal age research to be validated in the pubic eye. Chronic diseases that are not already in a family would decrease if men fathered all their babies in their 20s and very early 30s. People on the whole would live longer and healthier lives with less cancer, schizophrenia, autism, diabetes1, MS, Alzheimer's etc. etc. I say encourage any man in their 20s to bank semen for any later fathering. Sherasi is there any other autism at all in your family? The autism that is paternal age related tends to be the more severe type with close to a 1:1 ratio boys to girls. Does it make sense that those who have a great stake in selling drugs for chronic illnesses would do all the PR money can buy to promote older fathering?

Experts say Fertility Issues Also Effect Men

I found a well researched article just know that is discusses this issue.

A New Key to Autism

Autism can and does run in families, but is also more common in the children of older fathers. The risk was 22% when a sibling was diagnosed with autism in a 2005 study in Denmark.

I haven’t read he reports, but I can see where this would be possible. I have a 41 y/o daughter that is pregnant now and everything is going well, but one can’t tell until baby has been born and grows up.
All of this would kind of support and idea I have the schizophrenia may have organic compounds and genetic alteration rather than sociological upbringing.
Autism must also have something chemical or DNA related. My oldest daughter has an older child with Ausburger’s and 4 younger normal ones. Who knows what exactly is happening. May have come from the father’s side. Couldn’t be my side. HA!

Scapel
Thanks for answering. You wouldn't believe how much evidence there is for a paternal age effect in autism in non-familial cases. Of course the CDC wont tell anyone that. Why do you think Hispanics as a population group might have much fewer cases of autism??

I know what I say is probably gonna make people upset with me, but I feel I have to state my opinion. When having kids, there are always many risks.... Haveing a child after having gone through chemotherapy, also puts the child at risk. There are many things that can put the child at risk. And if a kid is born because of that with some birth defect, is he really going to say to his parents, you shouldn't have had me because you knew there was a risk? What matters most to me, is that the parents love thier children and are willing to take care of them. and I don't think a man who has never had children should not father children later in life, if he really truley wants kids, just because of the risk...

The risk isn't to him, it is to the child. If he is wanting to be a father fine, but he might consider using a young healthy donor's sperm, just like a woman can use an egg donor.Men should actually be taught the truth about the male biological clock and freeze their own semen for later fathering Children are not commodities and one should think about life without a normal brain before creating a life that is so at risk. How is that loving a child? It is pure selfishness.

If used a younger healthier guys sperm, then it isn't his kid..... and I don't think if you asked any disabled kids if they would prefer to never have been born because they'll have a problem, they would answer yes. Everyone has problems in life. We don't need to be paranoid about it..... So your saying as a standered every guy should freeze his sperm, because later in life he should have kids. I say, don't go and have kids with an older father, and let others make the choice for themselves. Recently I read an article about how many more father are fathering later in life, why hav't they listened to you? probably, because like they realize that being parents involves risk, and they are willing to take that risk.....

quote:

. Recently I read an article about how many more father are fathering later in life, why hav't they listened to you? probably, because like they realize that being parents involves risk, and they are willing to take that risk.....

Of course parenting has risks, but if a known risk is avoidable, and especially if the risk is to others, potential parents have a moral and ethical resposibility to find other ways to satisfy their egoes. Unborn children NEVER regret not having been born.

Yeah, but who is at risk? It is not the father who will be at risk, but the child.

As Annie has already pointed out.

He will not always be around to take care of the child if it grows to be an adult unable to care for him/herself. That is when the child is at risk from all the cruelties that life can offer: loneliness, dependence on strangers, the inability to defend oneself from abouse from others, the inability to earn a living, the inability to understand one's predicament, the inability to communicate with others.

This is in response to Leppi, who said:

quote:

[the older men wanting to father children] realize that being parents involves risk, and they are willing to take that risk.....

"He will not always be around to take care of the child if it grows to be an adult unable to care for him/herself. That is when the child is at risk from all the cruelties that life can offer: loneliness, dependence on strangers, the inability to defend oneself from abouse from others, the inability to earn a living, the inability to understand one's predicament, the inability to communicate with others."

How is the above different than the situation for any parent or child?