In every decision, there are consequences, including having children much later in life.
These effects are documented more on women, who are usually advised to have babies not later than 30 years old to avoid significant risks and complications during pregnancy and delivery. On the other hand, not much has been said about men.
In the UK, men are just like women-at least, in terms of late parenthood. The average age of being father has already increased to 32 while no less than 70,000 babies in 2004 were from dads who were 40 years old and above. About 60% of babies in 2008 belonged to men between 30 years old and older. Many reasons are causing the increase of these statistics, including the need to work and build a career before raising a family.
To resolve the problem, one doctor suggests young men to start storing their sperm in the bank.
According to Dundee's Albertay University doctor Kevin Smith, it's really not a good idea to father late. Based on different studies, there's a correlation between late fatherhood and the increased risk of developmental and congenital disorders among children. These conditions, in turn, can have a huge impact on the country's health care and society. This is because the quality of the sperm declines as the person ages, making it more prone to "errors."
Nevertheless, late fatherhood can't be helped. If they want to avoid these repercussions to babies' health later, they can just store their sperm in the bank then retrieve and use it when they're ready to have the baby. This way, the quality, in theory, should still be good.
As early as now, however, Dr. Smith is meeting some opposition. Some health experts and doctors consider the idea as ridiculous since the risks related to late fatherhood are actually small. Further, sperm doesn't thrive well when frozen, more so when stored for years.
