How old is too old to have a baby.?

By Dr. Shweta Goswami 

We all witnessed the recent news of an Indian couple where the woman of 72 years of age and her husband 79 years of age gave birth to a baby boy but at the same time we know that age factor is directly associated with decreasing fertility in women; their eggs grow old. But age does affect the fertility level in men too. 

Yes, you heard it right. Age is not a difficulty in women but after the age of 30, there is a drop in testosterone of 1% per year in men too. Testosterone is the energy, the hormone that you need to make good-quality sperm. It’s not just women who have to worry about their ticking reproductive clock. Men's sperm quality seems to decline after the age of 35. The older a man is the more his sperm cells are dived, and the more divisions present, the more there is a chance for an abnormality to occur. 

In males, sperm motility changed with age. Sperm motility is how well the sperm swim. Sperm motility is usually the best before age 25 and lowest after age 55. In fact, when comparing the number of “good swimming” sperm in men between the ages 30 to 35 with men over age 55, sperm motility decreased by 54 percent. 

In fact many studies have claimed that pregnancy rates decrease between 23% to 38% in comparisons between men under 30 and men over 50. Increased paternal age

has also been correlated to schizophrenia-(impaired thinking, emotions, and behaviors). 

It takes two to make a baby. While we can focus on the man’s age and the woman’s age, it’s also

important to consider how they combine. To have sex on the most fertile days are important but at the same time the age difference among them is also important. And above all their lifestyle habits contributed to their fertility is of utmost importance. 

A man can slow down his biological clock by simply living a healthier lifestyle. Quit smoking and drinking as well eat a healthy and balanced diet. Men tend to gain weight as they age and a man, who has a body mass index of more than 25, has a 20 percent chance of infertility. The size of a man’s waist is directly linked to his levels of testosterone. The larger a man’s waist is, the lower his testosterone levels are. 

Environmental toxins, like heavy metals are known to cause a problem with male fertility. Lead, cadmium (which you get from cigarette smoking) and excessive mercury (from too much exposure to certain fish) have been shown to decrease sperm function and counts. 

So, being an infertility specialist, I suggest it is better for each and everyone to plan their family on time and maintain healthy lifestyle to avoid complications later.