Advanced Paternal Age: What Are the Risks?

It is relatively common knowledge that as women age, the risk of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality like Downs’ Syndrome increases. Because of such risks, if a woman will be older than 35 at the time that her baby is born, she is considered “advanced maternal age” and genetic counseling is usually recommended. With older fathers, the effects of paternal age on pregnancy outcome are not that clear and there is no discrete cut-off age that is considered significantly advanced. There does not appear to be an increased risk of the chromosomal abnormalities that are associated with advancing age of the mom, but there is general consensus that advancing age of the dad predisposes the baby to a group of disorders termed autosomal dominant. Examples of autosomal dominant disorders include Marfan Syndrome (some professional basketball players have this), neurofibromatosis, achondroplasia and Apert syndrome. Grandsons to older fathers may be at higher-than-normal risk for other diseases like hemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Though paternal age does affect the risk of certain diseases, the exact risk of having a baby with any of these diseases is still very small. Most autosomal dominant disorders are seen in only 1 in 5000 to 10000 babies. So even a doubling of this risk is a very low risk overall. Unfortunately, there is no good way to screen for these types of problems during the pregnancy. But to be proactive, men older than 50 who are contemplating fathering a pregnancy should consider genetic counseling beforehand.