Effects of age on male fertility

Abstract

Later parenting is considered by many to have advantages, parents-to-be may feel themselves more stable to rear children. In addition, many men start a second family later in life. Thus, paternal age becomes an emerging issue. Aging affects male fertility by a scope of factors, which are not fully understood to date. Generally, the amount of produced sperm cells as well as their motility decreases with age, as testicular histological architecture deteriorates. Decreased fecundity and an increased risk for disturbed pregnancies occur with advancing paternal age. Some rare autosomal dominant pathologies are clearly related to paternal age. Altered patterns of epigenetics/gene expression in aging sperm seem to affect a range of neurocognitive disorders and also metabolic dyshomeostasis across generations. Such effects refer to men older than 40 years and may have impact on socio-economic issues. Nevertheless, councelling of older men seeking paternity should be patient-oriented and weigh statistical probabilities against the right for individual life-planning.

Keywords: aging and sperm; aging fathers; epigenetics and fertility; male fertility; paternal age.