Sunday, January 15, 2006

2034 Society won't want to hear this

For years we've known the dangers of older women and pregnancy, and now it appears the older father presents it's own set of problems--genetic.

"There are now approximately 20 different disorders that are correlated with paternal age. . . The risk of having a child who later develops schizophrenia is about 1 in 110 when a father is age 40--similar to a 40 year old woman's risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome." JAMA v.291,no.14(2004):1683-1685

An interview with Dr. Dolores Malaspina who has done extensive research on paternal genetic birth defects in Medscape.com. In the US, the age of the father is often not even recorded, but Israel, where she has done her research, has more detailed information in birth registries.

1 comment:

Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D. said...

Thank you for your interesting post!
I thought perhaps you may also find this related scientific study interesting to you:
Human Longevity and Parental Age at Conception
http://longevity-science.org/Parental_Age_2000.pdf