Do older fathers increase the risk for Down's Syndrome?

b743k

A friend of mine has a relationship with a man 13 years older than her. She is 28, he's 41. It is becoming serious but she said that she is afraid to commit to him as she would like to start a family in about 4 years and is worried that he, at 45 would increase their risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome.

I know that the mother's age is quite important but is she right to be worried? I haven't heard of the father's age having any affect.

seenitall

No, she's having it mixed up with schizophrenia. For Down's only the woman's age matters AFAIK.

ceadaoin.

There has been a link shown between a fathers age and an increased risk of autism in the child. It's still more likely that if they have a child there will be no issues so it's not really a reason for not pursuing a relationship with this man IMO.

Also, if she is not planning on trying to have children for another 4 years, then her age will slightly increase her chances of having a child with downs syndrome, regardless of the father's age. I'm sure she wouldn't be too happy if the guy decided not to have kids with her on the basis that there is a 1 in 700 chance of DS due to her age.

Results There was a significant monotonic association between advancing paternal age and risk of ASD. Offspring of men 40 years or older were 5.75 times (95% confidence interval, 2.65-12.46; P<.001) more likely to have ASD compared with offspring of men younger than 30 years, after controlling for year of birth, socioeconomic status, and maternal age. Advancing maternal age showed no association with ASD after adjusting for paternal age. Sensitivity analyses indicated that these findings were not the result of bias due to missing data on maternal age.

drkpower

b743k wrote: »

A friend of mine has a relationship with a man 13 years older than her. She is 28, he's 41. It is becoming serious but she said that she is afraid to commit to him as she would like to start a family in about 4 years and is worried that he, at 45 would increase their risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome.

Sounds like a solid relationship.

b743k

ceadaoin. wrote: »

There has been a link shown between a fathers age and an increased risk of autism in the child. It's still more likely that if they have a child there will be no issues so it's not really a reason for not pursuing a relationship with this man IMO.

Also, if she is not planning on trying to have children for another 4 years, then her age will slightly increase her chances of having a child with downs syndrome, regardless of the father's age. I'm sure she wouldn't be too happy if the guy decided not to have kids with her on the basis that there is a 1 in 700 chance of DS due to her age.

I never really thought that 32 was even an issue, still 1 in 700 is tiny.

drkpower wrote: »

Sounds like a solid relationship.

It's not a solid relationship, just one that is starting to get serious. She's trying to weigh up her choices before investing more time and it becoming serious/solid.

It might sound calculating/cold but the way she says it makes sense, 'I want to make sure that my choices now don't adversely affect my future child(ren)'s health'.

ceadaoin.

b743k wrote: »

I never really thought that 32 was even an issue, still 1 in 700 is tiny..

Well the rate of autism in kids with older fathers in that study was 32 in 10,000 so not exactly a dead cert.

b743k wrote: »

It's not a solid relationship, just one that is starting to get serious. She's trying to weigh up her choices before investing more time and it becoming serious/solid.

It might sound calculating/cold but the way she says it makes sense, 'I want to make sure that my choices now don't adversely affect my future child(ren)'s health'

I don't think it makes sense at all and I find it a bit odd to be honest. Is this man only a potential sperm donor or an actual person who she cares enough about to spend her life with and build a family?

There are many other factors which decide these things other than age. Is she going to subject any potential partner to full genetic testing to determine if they carry any hereditary diseases etc. Probably not, so she should stop stressing and live her life!