Treatment of infertility in men

Make love and multiply, don't look at age: but take the risks into account

"From a biological point of view, the optimal age for conceiving a child for a man is around the age of twenty. Evidence shows that children of fathers who are older than forty-five have almost twice the risk of serious childhood illness or even death. Physical anomalies, autism, epilepsy, and heart disease are typical. The age of the father may also be behind mental illness in children," warns an embryologist at a reproductive medicine clinic.

Both autism and schizophrenia

The notion that sperm do not carry age-related mutations has been definitively disproved, according to the expert. "Research and studies show that older fathers give even more genetic changes to their children compared to their mothers! New mutations associated with autism are much more likely to come from the father than from the mother," says the expert. The average number of mutations from the father's side was fifty-five, from the mother's side only fourteen.
In addition to autism and schizophrenia, children of older fathers are also much more likely to have:

• achondroplasia - a disorder characterized by short stature
• neurofibromatosis - a disease in which benign tumours grow under the skin
• Marfan syndrome, Apert syndrome, Crouzon syndrome, Leschov-Nyhaven syndrome, Treacher-Collins syndrome or Waldenburg syndrome.

Although these diseases are rare, their frequency of occurrence in men over the age of forty is the same as the incidence of Down's syndrome in women aged thirty-five to forty.

Should an elderly man have himself examined?

A basic examination that shows whether the sperm are moving, what shape they are and how many there are is not enough to detect impending anomalies. It is necessary to look inside the head. The so-called sperm chromatin integrity test will tell you a lot, as it will show that the genetic information in the sperm (DNA) has "broken", i.e. fragmented.

What can couples do if it turns out that there is a high chance of having a disabled child? "Assisted reproduction in the form of sperm donation may be the solution."
Asked if the birth of a healthy child in an elderly man is actually a minor miracle, he replies, "You can't speak directly of a miracle. However, spontaneous miscarriage, premature birth and pre-eclampsia, i.e. damage to the placental blood vessels, are more common in the partners of older men. Twenty-five-year-old fathers, for example, have an eight per cent risk of their wife miscarrying, and for men over thirty-five this risk rises to twenty-four per cent. It is the inferior sperm quality conditioned by the father's age that is to blame." He concludes with a smile: "Make love and multiply, don't look at age, but take these risks into account as well."

Beware of red meat

Recommendations for men in older age desiring fatherhood:

• avoid red meat and unhealthy foods that increase the risk of DNA damage and sperm ageing,
• high intake of vitamins C and E, zinc and folic acid - they protect the genetic information in the sperm nucleus,
• eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts and fish,
• do not smoke, drink only in moderation, maintain an active lifestyle,
• avoid hot baths, as sperm like cool temperatures.