Here’s How Your Eggs and His Sperms Age With Time

Surprise surprise, it’s not just women, men have a biological clock too

There’s a clock ticking somewhere close. Tick tock, tick tock!

A woman is 10% less fertile at 27, that’s when the biological clock starts ticking. New research has now found that there’s a limited window for fatherhood too - every year after the age of 30 testosterone levels drop by 1% in men and post 40, the sperms are associated with more genetic abnormalities.

So if you missed learning the birds and the bees of fertility in high school, let’s re-start your sexual education about making a baby that (probably) your teachers and parents never told you about.

You can also listen to the audio version of this story here.

(P.S: We are not giving you unsolicited advise to leave everything and go get pregnant. We trust the neighbourhood aunty for that.)

Everything You Wanted To Know About Fertility

Dudes Have a Biological Clock Too!

The ‘sacred sperm’ approach that men can father a child until pretty much they kick the bucket, is majorly flawed.

Men lose the quantity as well as quality of sperms right from their 30s. Scientists in the King’s College London studied more than a lakh people and found that men who became fathers after the age of 40 had a 475% increased risk of having children with autism in comparison to those who became dads under the age of 30.

Now researchers don’t know exactly why this happens but at some level mutations in the sperms are to be blamed.

Sure, men won’t suddenly rush to make babies, but as a woman, it’s nice to know the responsibility of having healthy kids isn’t just on us!

Men and Women’s Biological Clocks Are Different Yet Similar

Men and women have pretty clear-cut fertility patterns.

A woman is born with a fixed number of eggs, her egg supply is set when she’s in the womb and it dwindles with each menstrual cycle. Men on the other hand, produce sperms throughout their life. Their fertility begins to decline once they are in their 30s, but its not like going off the cliff, the descent is not rapid. And in comparison to women, they can father kids even in their late 40s or 50s.

But in both men and women, a decline in fertility is associated with a higher risk of the baby suffering from a genetic problem (in men the risk is higher). So just because he has sperms does not mean it’s high-grade sperms.

So What Are Your Options If You Are Infertile?

Infertility is an umbrella topic, one that covers a wide range of issues. From mild hormone drugs to stimulate ovulation, surgery and IVF (the process in which high-quality eggs and sperms are harvested, fertilised in the petri dish and then implanted in the womb), the medical options are plenty.

Egg freezing was recently in the news when 42-year-old, former beauty queen Diana Hayden became a mother from eggs harvested 8 years back and then there’s the novel womb transplant, which raises motherhood hope for infertile women.

Also Read: What Does a Cancer Diagnosis in Pregnancy Mean for the Baby?