Posted on: Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Is that ticking sound a male biological clock?
| • | Nesting is a guy thing |
By Sharon Jayson
USA TODAY
Harry Fisch says his new book, "The Male Biological Clock: The Startling News About Aging, Sexuality, and Fertility in Men," isn't meant to scare couples who aren't ready to start a family. But the Columbia University urologist, who studies male infertility, is creating a stir with his warning that couples who delay having a baby could risk infertility and face increased risks of producing children with birth defects.
Advertiser library photo • November 2004 Fisch's premise is that men, like women, hear the clock ticking. The difference is that while women face a fertility shutdown, men's testosterone levels and fertility decline with age.
It may start as early as the mid-30s; men over 35 are twice as likely to be infertile as men 25 or younger, he says.
He also cites two studies finding increased schizophrenia and increased risk of Down syndrome in children of older fathers. Some men "can have kids later on," Fisch says, but "don't count on it. These issues about male aging and its effects on genetic quality have been known for years, but the disorders were extremely rare. Now we're saying it's not as rare."
Others call Fisch an alarmist relying on sketchy research.
"It clearly requires future studies," says Robert Schenken, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. He says plenty of men have children later in life.
David Letterman had a son at 56; Michael Douglas had a daughter at 58. Larry King, Strom Thurmond and Saul Bellow fathered kids in their 60s, 70s or 80s.
Richard Scott, a reproductive endocrinologist and embryologist from Morristown, N.J., says Fisch's book includes "lots of generalizations and may be a bit sensationalistic. None of the studies are prospective longitudinal studies where you can control for confounding variables."
But Fisch disagrees. "The science is there," he says. "It's not the science that's controversial. It's the acceptance and the cultural issue."
One in 10 couples face infertility each year, the American Fertility Association says; 40 percent of problems are the man's.
David Letterman became a father at 56. How much male fertility may decline with age is unclear.
