Couples can
now be reassured regarding their concerns for adverse perinatal outcomes
because of advancing paternal age says the results of recent study in press in
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG).
The abstract
for this study was presented as a poster presentation at the American Society
for Reproductive Medicine Scientific Meeting October 15-19, 2016 in Salt Lake
City, Utah, USA.
The adverse
effects of increasing maternal age and ARTs are well known, but data on effects
of increased paternal age is scarce.
This is a large
population-based retrospective cohort study, stretching across 7 years that
examined 1,034,552 live births in state of Ohio.
The data was
stratified according to natural conception or use of ARTs.
It was seen
that:
The paternal
age varied between 12-87 years, mean 30 years.
Maternal age
ranged from 11-62 years, median 27 years.
ARTs were used
in 3118 pregnancies while 830,609 were due to natural conception.
Statistically
significant increased need for ARTs was observed with increasing paternal age: 0.1%
<30 years vs. 2.5% > 60 years, p<0.001.
After considering
increasing maternal age and other confounders, increased paternal age was not significantly
associated with preterm births, preeclampsia, Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR),
congenital anomalies, genetic disorders or increased NICU admissions.
These results
were also same when the data was stratified according to the use of ARTs or
not.
The only limitation
of the study was data was derived from births register, only shortterm outcome was
looked at and compared to total sample size, pregnancies with advanced paternal
age was small.
The authors concluded
that, “Older paternal age does not appear to pose an independent risk of
adverse perinatal outcomes, either in pregnancies achieved with or without ART.”
