How Age Affects a Man’s and a Woman’s Fertility (Part 2)

Mark Wealth

But there’s a worry some of these women have and others are ignorant of. Is it possible that it could be too late to have a child? Is the biological clock real and ticking? In Tina Turner’s voice: what’s age got to do…got to do with it? Keep on reading to find out how age affects your fertility. See part one here.

The Effect
They will have to try conceiving for longer periods before succeeding. Sadly, though, it turns out that there is an increase in the chances of having miscarriages or still births with older women. If they go ahead and get pregnant, they may have babies with developmental problems and these might come with assisted child delivery like Cesarean operations.

Gender Equality Issues
We’ve been going on like it’s only the female folk that should worry about if and how age affects their chances of getting babies but experts say the men are also affected. The difference is that for men, it comes a lot later in life. While women have little or nothing to worry about until they are in their mid to late 30s, men can still rock on till they are in their 50s before issues with their fertility starts to set in.
Nevertheless, “paternal age effect” on the health of the baby and complications during delivery increases as the men enter their late 30s. This, according to experts is because, spermatogenesis increases as men get older and this causes mutations in the sperm. These mutations, according to research, cause babies to come out with disorders like autism, schizophrenia and other impaired developments or worse, as stillbirths, as DOAs.

The But…!
You know there’s always going to be a “but”. It’s interesting to note that as women age past 35, there is an increase in the hormone that causes the release of the egg for conception. This increase in the release of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is as a result in the decrease of the number of eggs. The implication of this is that the follicles get high on FSH and may release more than one egg causing the woman to conceive a set of (unidentical) twins.
Isn’t it interesting that though it may take longer to get pregnant as you get older, when you conceive, you are also more likely to conceive twins? This may put to rest your worries of getting more babies, right?

The Conclusion
So while the women worry about the time it will take and chances of getting pregnant with healthy babies as they grow old, the men should be worried about passing on those mutations to their children or causing complications during child birth. It should be understood that with women, they might have to have frequent unprotected sex with their spouse for a longer time (between 6 months and 3 years) before getting pregnant; “might” being the operative word. It takes longer periods as they age. Total infertility only comes with menopause.

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Men on the other hand can get women pregnant throughout their lives as long as they have the energy to “do the do”. While some women arrive at menopause earlier than others, not all men have those mutant sperm so start to do the necessary check ups with your GP as you approach your 30s to find out what your situation is and keep a positive mind set.

We’ll conclude this with the advise from experts: once you’ve reached 30 and you have plans to have your own babies, better have that discussion with your partner sooner than later. Now go into the world and multiply.