"However, parents-to-be should recognize that younger adulthood is the best time for both sexes to have children."

Dr. Simeon Margolis, a professor of both medicine and biological chemistry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.


"DNA damage in sperm is one probable explanation for the genetic abnormalities associated with fatherhood at an older age. The testicular cells that give rise to sperm divide every 16 days; this means that the cells will have split about 840 times by age 50, and with each cell division the chance increases for errors in the sperm's DNA. Examination of sperm from men ages 22 to 80 showed a progressive increase with age in the number of broken DNA strands and other genetic abnormalities"