Does Sperm Have an Expiration Date?
I write a lot about women’s reproduction on my blog, but today I’d like to focus on male fertility. I read an article yesterday about Donald Trump’s fembot wife giving birth to a baby boy this week – which Trump announced on national television only 20 minutes after his latest press release was brought into the world. “I continue to stay young, right? I produce children, I stay young,” the 59-year-old Trump said, as reported by AFP.
There are countless examples of old rich men and their young trophy wives. Nothing could be a bigger cliché. Why, here’s a photo of a major offender, Mrs. Michael Douglas, puffing away on a cigarette while pregnant with her last investment…er, baby:
What a classy dame!
We all know that the vast majority of women usually can’t get pregnant beyond their mid-forties at the latest, while men can, in theory, father offspring until they die. But is it really as simple as that?
A report by Dr. Jason Cheng stated: “Although the lifespan of ability to produce a sperm continues unabated, men are just as vulnerable to the wear and tear of the aging process as a woman is.”
According to a report from the BBC, “the chances of a man having children dip past his 35th birthday.” Men over the age of 35 are more likely to produce damaged sperm, including sperm with broken strands of DNA. “This could mean that the risk of miscarriage is increased or, at the other end of the scale, that children have a greater chance of developing mild abnormalities such as uneven teeth, or asymmetrical limbs," the BBC report stated. Men who smoke cigarettes or marijuana have an even higher likelihood of producing damaged sperm.
When a man gets into his 40s, 50s and beyond, he is more likely to father a child with birth defects than a younger man. Studies have also shown that the offspring of older men have an increased risk of suffering from schizophrenia, mental retardation, Alzheimer’s and autism.
As I have written before on this blog, career women in their thirties are the targets of a bullying and misogynistic media campaign that seeks to terrify them about the possibility that they’ll never have a baby if they delay, or that any child they do have will suffer from birth defects – all as a result of their selfishness. Not surprisingly, we rarely hear about the real and credible risks of sperm that’s past its sell-by date. Fertility specialists urge men to plan their families according to a realistic timetable, just as women should.
Also, older, over-35 women tend to reproduce with men in the same age group, yet when a woman cannot carry a pregnancy to term or when a child is born with birth defects, it is always the woman and her advanced age that are blamed. But it is just as likely that the problem was caused by aging sperm. If a 38-year-old woman had a baby with a 22-year-old man, would the risks decrease? Perhaps.
Meanwhile, men like Trump are lauded by the media as studs. His ability to produce healthy offspring is not questioned (nor is the issue of selfishness raised when an almost 60-year-old man fathers a child). Most people will continue to believe that the sperm of a 25-year-old is the same as a senior citizen’s – and that’s a shame.
There are countless examples of old rich men and their young trophy wives. Nothing could be a bigger cliché. Why, here’s a photo of a major offender, Mrs. Michael Douglas, puffing away on a cigarette while pregnant with her last investment…er, baby:
What a classy dame!We all know that the vast majority of women usually can’t get pregnant beyond their mid-forties at the latest, while men can, in theory, father offspring until they die. But is it really as simple as that?
A report by Dr. Jason Cheng stated: “Although the lifespan of ability to produce a sperm continues unabated, men are just as vulnerable to the wear and tear of the aging process as a woman is.”
According to a report from the BBC, “the chances of a man having children dip past his 35th birthday.” Men over the age of 35 are more likely to produce damaged sperm, including sperm with broken strands of DNA. “This could mean that the risk of miscarriage is increased or, at the other end of the scale, that children have a greater chance of developing mild abnormalities such as uneven teeth, or asymmetrical limbs," the BBC report stated. Men who smoke cigarettes or marijuana have an even higher likelihood of producing damaged sperm.
When a man gets into his 40s, 50s and beyond, he is more likely to father a child with birth defects than a younger man. Studies have also shown that the offspring of older men have an increased risk of suffering from schizophrenia, mental retardation, Alzheimer’s and autism.
As I have written before on this blog, career women in their thirties are the targets of a bullying and misogynistic media campaign that seeks to terrify them about the possibility that they’ll never have a baby if they delay, or that any child they do have will suffer from birth defects – all as a result of their selfishness. Not surprisingly, we rarely hear about the real and credible risks of sperm that’s past its sell-by date. Fertility specialists urge men to plan their families according to a realistic timetable, just as women should.
Also, older, over-35 women tend to reproduce with men in the same age group, yet when a woman cannot carry a pregnancy to term or when a child is born with birth defects, it is always the woman and her advanced age that are blamed. But it is just as likely that the problem was caused by aging sperm. If a 38-year-old woman had a baby with a 22-year-old man, would the risks decrease? Perhaps.
Meanwhile, men like Trump are lauded by the media as studs. His ability to produce healthy offspring is not questioned (nor is the issue of selfishness raised when an almost 60-year-old man fathers a child). Most people will continue to believe that the sperm of a 25-year-old is the same as a senior citizen’s – and that’s a shame.
posted by Anglofille at 01:10
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