男性41歲後做爸爸難度陡增

Male fertility declines with age – with even a year making a difference, researchers have warned.

據英國《每日郵報》10月20日報道，研究警示男性的生育力隨着年齡的增長而下滑，甚至每年都有較大差別。

They say that after the age of 41, a man’s odds of fathering a child decline rapidly. And after 45, those who haven’t started a family and want one should start doing something about it.

研究人員稱，男性在41歲之後做父親的機率會迅速降低。而在45歲以後，那些仍處於單身但還想要組建家庭的男性就應該爲此費點功夫了。

The warning comes from a study of IVF patients in which the man’s sperm fertilised an egg from a donor.

該警告來自於針對接受試管受精病人的一項研究。在這些病人體內，男子的精子與受捐的卵子進行了配對。

In the context of the study, the use of donor eggs allowed the researchers to separate out the effect of the man’s age from that of the woman’s.

在這種研究背景下，使用捐贈的卵子可以讓研究人員分辨出(受精卵的質量)是受男人年齡影響還是源自女方因素。

The donor eggs all came from young, healthy women and so any differences in pregnancy rate must be due to the sperm.

卵子捐贈者均爲年輕健康的女性，所以任何受孕機率上的差別一定是源於精子。

And the difference was clear, with fertility declining by up to seven per cent with each extra year on a man’s age between 41 and 45. After that, it declined even more rapidly.

而差別是明顯的。年齡在41-45歲之間，男性的生育力年降7%。超過45歲以後，生育能力的下滑速度更快。

Researcher Paula, of the Huntington Medicina Reproductiva clinic in Brazil, said: “Age counts. Men have a biological clock too. It is not the same as for women but they can’ t wait forever to have children.”

巴西亨廷頓生殖診所的研究員保拉說 “年齡是有影響的。 男性也有生物鐘，不過與女性不同，但這並不意味着他們一輩子都有生育能力。”

"They have to think about having children, especially after 45."

“男性，尤其是在過了45歲之後，不得不考慮生孩子的問題。”