Truth about male fertility
IVF clinics are heaving with couples in their late 30s and early 40s who are all hoping for a medical miracle. Meanwhile thousands of other couples are facing the heartbreaking realisation that their chances of parenthood might well have passed them by.
In all this the key focus is on the age of the mother and a woman’s 35th birthday – the age after which her fertility begins to decline – is a cause for alarm. However there is one important factor that has largely been absent from the fertility debate until now and that is the role of fathers. After all men contribute 50 per cent of the genetic material required for successful reproduction but their role in any age-related fertility crisis has so far gone largely unexplored.
But... why? The article gives a couple of reasons, neither of them particularly convincing. Is there really a scientific reason why infertility with age has been assumed to be an entirely female problem?
