No Fountain of Youth For Sperm
By NICOLE WARD
Updated 3:40 AM PST, Wed, Apr 8, 2009
This is just too good. You know the old wisdom that says women are on a clock to get educated, have a successful career, find the perfect man, and squeeze out 2.5 children, before the age of 30 -- while men can continue to spread their seed well into their later years? Ha! Not so much.
The New York Times has an article that shows children born to older fathers score lower, on average, on intelligence tests. And there's more ... the risk of schizophrenia increases for children whose fathers were over 30 when they were conceived. 30!
Bipolar disorder begins to rise when fathers are older than 29.
And babies born to men over 40 showed greater risk of autism. In most of these studies, the age of the mother showed little or no correlation.
Research was done by French, British, Swedish and American scientists. And while their results are small, this could lead to a whole new way we think of gender roles. I mean, for years men have been conditioned to look for younger mates so they could continue to reproduce. But now science may show it doesn't matter how old their wife is, if their swimmers have passed their "sell by" date.
I guess this puts us all in the same boat. Too many things to do, and not enough time to do them.
First Published: Apr 7, 2009 6:37 AM PST
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
