男性生物钟：41岁以后，男人做父亲的机会锐减

译者 Marian~

The MALE biological clock: After 41 your chances of becoming a father 'declines rapidly'

男性生物钟：41岁以后，男人做父亲的机会锐减

By Fiona Macrae

作者：Fiona Macrae

Last updated at 2:23 PM on 20th October 2011

It is not just women that have to worry about their biological clock.

担心生物钟的不仅限于女人。

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

研究人员警告说，男性生育能力随年龄增长而衰退，甚至今年和明年都会有所不同。

They say that after the age of 41, a man’s odds of fathering a child decline rapidly.

他们说，过了41岁的男人做父亲的几率陡降。

Don't wait too long: Male fertility declines with age, researchers have warned (picture posed by model)

不要长久等待：研究人员警告，男性生育能力随年龄增长而下降（图片来自model）

And after 45, those who haven’t started a family and want one should start doing something about it.

那些过了45岁还没有成家，且不打算独身一辈子的男人，应该抓紧时间赶快行动了。

But with the likes of Des O’Connor having his fifth child at 72, and Rod Stewart becoming father for the eighth time at the age of 66, other experts said the finding should be taken with a pinch of salt.

但是，怎样解释这类情况呢，戴斯.奥康纳在72岁时有了第五子，罗德.斯图尔特在66岁时第八次成为父亲，另一些专家说，对该发现应持保留态度。

The warning comes from a study

警告来自于一项研究

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.

在这项研究的背景下，供体卵的使用为研究人员提供了条件，以区别男性与女性年龄的影响。

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

卵子皆来自年轻健康的女性，所以受孕率的变化一定是由精子决定的。

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.

区别很明显，处于41岁到45岁之间的男人，每长一岁，生育能力下降的最大幅度为7%。45岁之后，下降速度甚至更快。

The average age of the men whose partners got treatment through IVF was 41.

一些妻子曾采用试管受精，而这些丈夫们的平均年龄为41岁。

But the average age of those in which the IVF was unsuccessful was 45, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference heard.

参加生殖医学年度会议的美国学会从会上得知，试管受精失败的丈夫们的平均年龄为45岁。

The chances of pregnancy fell from 60 per cent at the age of 41 to just 35 per cent for the 45-year-olds.

41岁时受孕率为60%，而45岁时仅为35%。

Researcher Paula Fettback, of the Huntington Medicina Reproductiva clinic in Brazil, said: ‘Age counts

巴西的亨廷顿医学生殖临床研究人员保拉.凡特贝克说，“年龄是有影响的。”

‘Men have a biological clock too.  It is not the same as for women but they can’ t wait forever to have children.

“男人同样有生物钟。虽然它和女人的不同，但男人也不会一直能生育。”

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

“男人也必须考虑生育问题，尤其那些45岁以上的男人。”

A second study presented at the conference backed up the warning.

在年会上呈交的另一份研究报告支持这种警示。

There, fertility plummeted in male mice from a year old – equivalent to middle-age in people.

这项研究显示，雄性老鼠年长一岁，生育能力大幅降低，和处于中年的人类情况相同。

Fewer eggs were fertilised and fewer embryos grew long enough to be used in IVF.

受精的卵子越来越少，充分发育可用作试管受精的胚胎也越来越少。

Pregnancies took longer to occur and when they did, the miscarriage rate rocketed from zero using sperm from young animals, to over 60 per cent.

受孕需要时间长，即使受孕成功，流产率高至60%，而由年轻动物授精的胚胎流产率为0。

The researchers, from the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they believed there would be ‘some parallel’ with men.

生殖医学科罗拉多中心的研究人员称，他们相信，它们的研究结果将“在某种程度上与男人相匹配”。

‘We found an abrupt reproductive deterioration in mid-life, equivalent to humans in their 40s.’

“在相当于40多岁人类的野生动物身上，我们发现生殖能力的骤然退化。”

Other studies have found that children of older fathers also run an increased risk of heart defects, autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy, and are almost twice as likely to die before adulthood.

其他研究还发现，老生子患心脏缺损、自闭症、精神分裂症和癫痫的风险更高，而且夭折的几率几乎多一倍。

While men constantly make fresh sperm, the ‘machinery’ that makes it can slow down and become defective over time.  In addition, genetic errors may creep into sperm as men get older.

男人不断地产生新鲜的精子时，随时着时间的推移，身体“这部机器”会使这个过程减速且变得不完美。另外，随着男人变老，基因突变可能会潜入精子。

But other experts said advised would-be fathers not to worry.

但是，另有专家说，受以上说法影响的准父亲们不必担心。

Dr Richard Sherbahn, of the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, said that while it is likely that male fertility does decline, any difference is likely to be just a few per cent over decades.

芝加哥高级生殖中心的教授理查德.谢尔伯恩说，男生生育能力可能衰退，但衰退的程度微乎其微，几十年内可能仅衰退几个百分点。

He added that IVF can compensate for many problems in sperm, in a way that it can’t with eggs.

他补充道，试管受精能弥补精子的多种不足，但对卵子却无能为力。

Charles Kingsland, a consultant gynaecologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and member of the British Fertility Society, questioned the quality of the study and added that the quality of a woman’s eggs is far more important.

利物浦女子医院的妇科会诊医生、英国生殖学会会员查尔斯.金士兰，对该研究的质量表示怀疑，并提出，女性卵子的质量是举足轻重的。

He advised men who want to stay in good reproductive shape to eat healthily, not smoke, drink only in moderation, keep active and avoid hot baths, as sperm likes cool temperatures.

他建议那些想保持良好生殖能力的男人们：饮食健康；不吸烟；只适度饮酒；保持活力；不洗热水澡，因为精子喜欢凉爽环境。

He added: ‘There are a lot of advantages to being a young father.  First and foremost, you’ve got energy.  But being an older father also confers certain advantages – stability, wisdom, maybe a bit of financial security but you don’t have the energy.

他补充说：“年轻的父亲有很多优势。首当其冲，你精力充沛。但年长的父亲也有一定的优势——稳定、睿智、或多一点经济保障，但你缺少精力。

‘I wouldn’t go rushing off to procreate on the basis that tomorrow my fertility might drop.’

“我将不会因我的生育能力明天可能衰退而急于生孩子。”