A new study shows a father’s age, not a mother’s, when a baby is conceived may be the single largest factor in the risk of passing on new gene mutations to children, leading to autism and other disorders.
While women tend to get the blame if they are older and give birth to a child with birth defects, men are given a “pass” by society.
But studies, including this one, have shown that the older the man, the greater likelihood there is of fathering a child with autism, schizophrenia, Down syndrome or other genetic diseases. So, while men’s fertility doesn’t completely disappear with age the way women’s fertility does, that doesn’t mean that men get off scot-free.
