Via Reddit

Orion Peyrol

Managing Editor

Fertility has always been considered a woman’s domain, and thus any issues conceiving have been put entirely on their shoulders for centuries. Undeniably, aging is a big part of fertility and can cause many complications. We’ve been talking about women’s “biological clock” for such a long time, assigning them a shelf life based on the amount of years they have left to have children.

” Turns out, no matter how much the patriarchy would like you to believe otherwise, men have a biological clock as well; it’s just harder to assign a deadline to. “

Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have and lose them as they get older. After the age of 35, the ova (the egg cells)  are rapidly dwindling; we could say the female biological clock is more of a countdown, really. Men’s, however, is more akin to a watch that will keep ticking until age and wear make it fall into disrepair. Either way, you get the same result—a clock that won’t tell us the time.

We define infertility as the inability to initiate pregnancy within a year, and it’s as likely to be caused by the female partner as it is by the male partner, with the other third of the time being due to a combination of factors from both sides. One of those factors is age. According to the Sao Paolo Medical Journal, just like women, men over the age of 35 are twice as likely to be infertile compared to men under 25. But why does age affect fertility so much? 

With aging come physical changes to the testicles, seminal vesicles, prostate, and epididymis, a hormonally sensitive tissue, as well as a change in semen quality. Semen quality is determined by sperm volume, sperm motility (the ability to move effectively), and the regularity of its shape. As the clock continues to tick, men will start having a lower sperm count per ejaculate; the sperm itself will move slower (and weirder, sometimes even swimming in circles), and will be more likely to have irregular shapes caused by an increase in genetic abnormalities during spermatogenesis. These structural abnormalities make it more difficult for the sperm to penetrate the egg and fertilize it, while atypical movement means the sperm are less likely to even make it through the female reproductive tract in the first place.

Undeniably, age is not the only factor in semen quality: alcohol, cigarettes, and overall health all play a very large role, but age has been linked to quite a few negative effects. There is a direct link between increased paternal age and the risk of children having neuropsychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and dyslexia. In addition, doctors have found that when year of birth, maternal age, and socioeconomic status were controlled, the offspring of men over the age of 45 were 5.75 times more likely to have autism spectrum disorder compared to men under the age of 30. A similar link has been found between paternal age and the risk of a child being born with Down’s syndrome. Furthermore, no matter how young or healthy the female partner is, the rate of miscarriages, premature births, and complicated births increase based on the male partner’s age.

If paternal age can cause so many issues, why isn’t it common knowledge? As stated previously, pregnancy and the ability to conceive have always been seen as a woman’s duty, but there’s also a cultural idea that a man’s masculinity is tied to his sperm; thus, to question the quality of his ejaculate is to question his masculinity. Because of this, men are generally reluctant to provide samples of their semen unless actively concerned about their reproductive health. Thankfully, this is starting to change slowly but surely, thanks to at-home testing making it more accessible and less intimidating than going to a lab. 

More and more research is being done into the masculine partner’s role;advancements are being made every day. For example, hormonal therapy for men is starting to become better known. It works by increasing either FSH or LH, which both stimulate the testes into either producing more sperm (FSH) or producing more testosterone (LH). Sperm preservation is also starting to be done more and more, and it’s a great option if you know you want children later on but are afraid of the decline in the caliber of your semen.