It seems that parents are getting older. Let’s say that in some cases, quite older.
As is the case of the actor Al Pacino, 83, who this week we learned that he is going to be a father again when his representatives announced that he is going to have a son with his girlfriend Noor Alfallah, 29 years old.
Pacino will join his one-and-done co-star Robert De Niro in the late-fatherhood club, who last month confirmed he will be the father of his seventh child at age 79.
They are not the first elderly parents: other actors, musicians and even presidents of the United States have had children at an advanced age.
The average age of new parents in general has been increasing over the years to the point that between 1972 and 2015 it increased by 3.5 years. Today the median father in the US is 30.9 years old, and 9% of fathers were at least 40 years old when their child was born.
The oldest father in history, at least according to the Guinness Book of Records, was 92, though unofficial claims about even older men sometimes surface.
However, becoming a parent at such a late age comes with its risks.
lower quality
In December 2022, researchers from the University of Utah and other institutions published a comprehensive review of “advanced paternal age” and its implications for fertility, pregnancy problems, and child health.
Although many of the studies probably did not include many men of Pacino’s or De Niro’s age, due to how rare they are, the evidence suggests that sperm from men in their forties and fifties is already of lower quality in terms of volume, count, motility and mutations.
These changes mean that advanced paternal age “is strongly associated with a high risk not only of infertility, but also of pregnancy loss after natural conception,” the researchers write.
That claim is supported by several studies that have shown that an older father significantly increases the risk of miscarriage.
Then there is the risk of disease after birth. It has been known since the 1950s that older parents are more likely to have children with achondroplasia, a genetic disorder. And since then correlations with various other conditions have emerged.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that advanced paternal age, like advanced maternal age, is associated with…detrimental health effects in offspring,” the University of Utah study published.
Other research, this time from Stanford University, found that older paternal age was linked to an increased risk of low birth weight and seizures in newborns.
Older paternal age is also associated with higher rates of various childhood cancers, as well as congenital heart defects and a higher chance of autism.
However, it should be remembered that, as in many studies examining associations between health and possible causes, the mechanisms are not clear. There could be other complicating factors such as parental lifestyle and environmental pollution.
also in man
Even so, researchers have found that as men age, they can undergo mutations and damage to the DNA of the cells that form sperm, which can then be passed on to the next generation.
Studies like this are causing changes in the way doctors and scientists think about fertility in general.
Historically, attention has tended to focus on women and their age when a couple has problems conceiving, focusing much of the research on female fertility.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that although male fertility declines more slowly and later in life than female fertility, the age of the father is still important.
For now, the cases of Pacino and De Niro — and other men in their seventies, eighties and nineties — remain a rarity. But, in general, fatherhood is no longer a thing for young people.
Since the 1970s, the number of American parents under the age of 30 has decreased by 27%, while the number of parents between the ages of 45 and 49 has increased by as much as 52%.
If current trends continue, medicine – not to mention social attitudes – will undoubtedly have to adapt.
Keep reading more about Al Pacino and Robert De Niro here:
· Robert De Niro’s reaction to the news that Al Pacino will be a father at 83
· Al Pacino performs a DNA test on the son he is expecting because he did not believe that he could be a father at 83 years old
Al Pacino will be a father at 83 with his 29-year-old girlfriend
See original article on BBC