Fertility Issues: Study suggests that Older Men Tend to Father Children with Autism
The results of this research conducted by Abraham Reichenberg, researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York tend to show what lay people and scientists have suspected for a long time now. Older men who may have injured genes and other health issues may still father children, but these children may suffer from developmental issues such as autism. Now do the results of this study cast some doubt on the century-old lifestyle of older men vs. young women relationship? Men who have always been in a position of power have always searched for opportunities to increase their chance to have offspring. In patriarchal societies, men dictate the rules.
What happens to women and men's relationships in matriarchal societies? What do they go by?
Any way, scientists are taking some deep interest in older gentlemen who want to become fathers in their 40s and 50s and the incidence of an epidemic known as autism. Dr. Reichenberg led the research that involved about 130,000 Israeli Jews born in the 1980s. Those fathered by older men were almost six times more likely to have autism or related disorders than those fathered by men younger than 30, and more than 1 1/2 times more likely than children fathered by men ages 30-39. What is interesting to note is that the mothers' age at childbirth appeared to have little impact on autism. Well, the scientists could not rule out a possible small effect from the oldest mothers. What does this mean to any society where older men, usually more stable economically and more entrenched in power, seem to call the shots?
If the results of this study are holding, they show that places with high prevalence of autism may have this type of older men vs. young women relationship. Could it also touch into the lifestyle of some highly accomplished people who want to delay child bearing time to later years because they want to pursue some professional and/or career goals? Having children at a later year may become hazardous to the children and mother's life. What is up with father's age? Apparently, father's age has been an accomplice or a culprit in other cases. Other studies have shown that sperm mutate more often in older men, potentially leading to increased risk for brain abnormalities in their children. What are some of the causes of autism? The research also points out that genes may be a cause of autism. That's according to a good theory.