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Elderly father passes bad genes to his offspring
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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In the course of new studies, scientists have established that if a man becomes a father at an older age, then this threatens the child with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia or autism. Specialists have concluded that if the man was at least 45 years old at the time of conception, then the probability of mental illnesses in the child increases by 34% (compared to male fathers aged 25-29).
The researchers made all these conclusions after examining approximately three million children. As the results showed, the "biological" clock also works in men. However, with age, women experience a decrease in ovarian function, which leads to problems with conception, while men experience an increased risk of genetic mutations with age, which they can pass on to their children when conceiving.
As scientists have established, four times more mutations are passed on from fathers to their offspring than from mothers. With age, the number of mutated genes in a man's body increases. For example, a man who became a father at the age of over 30 passes on four times more mutations to his child than at the age of 20, and in a 70-year-old father, the number of altered genes increases 8 times. Scientists assume that the reason for this is in the peculiarities of sperm generation, which begin to mutate in the process of division of precursor cells. A woman already has a set of eggs at birth, which are used up during her life, so mutations do not affect them over time.
The head of the study, John McGrath, an employee of the University of Queensland, noted that the project aimed to explain to people that if you become parents after 40 years, then this may not have a very good effect on the health of your future child. A man's body produces sperm throughout his life and in the case of conception, the health of the baby depends greatly on the age of the father. Although scientists do not completely exclude risks associated with the health of the mother at the time of conception.
It was also found that the daughter of an elderly father has a higher chance of being born with an autism diagnosis. Moreover, the probability of autism in sons, although slightly lower, still exists. In addition, scientists have found that childbirth at a young age is also unsafe for the health of the child. Too young an age of the mother has a negative effect on the mental abilities of the future child. Scientists associate this with the great stress that the young mother experiences, since most girls were not ready for motherhood, and therefore were very worried. Studies have shown that more than 40% of young women suffered from severe prenatal depression, which served as a violation of the brain development of the fetus. And late childbirth, according to the results of research by American scientists, reduces the risk of developing malignant tumors in women.
Earlier studies have found that the risk of mental disorders in an older father does not increase if this is not his first child, and in Iceland, experts have found that an older father passes on to his offspring a large number of gene mutations that are not typical of either parent.
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