Men over 40 less fertile: study

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Women's pregnancy rates drop and miscarriages increase when the baby's father is over 40 years old, according to a study to be released Monday.

It has long been known that a woman's chance of reproducing declines with age once she is in her mid-thirties, but the new findings provide the strongest evidence to date that being an older father poses a risk as well.

Researchers in France monitored 21,239 cases of intrauterine insemination (IUI) -- a particularly effective type of artificial insemination -- in more than 12,000 couples.

As expected, they found that women over 35 showed significantly decreased pregnancy rates compared to younger women, as well as higher rates of miscarriage.

"But we also demonstrated that the age of the father...