男性生物鐘：41歲以后，男人做父親的機(jī)會銳減
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.
擔(dān)心生物鐘的不僅限于女人。
Male fertility declines with age – with even a year making a difference, researchers have warned.
研究人員警告說，男性生育能力隨年齡增長而衰退，甚至今年和明年都會有所不同。
They say that after the age of 41, a man’s odds of fathering a child decline rapidly.
他們說，過了41歲的男人做父親的幾率陡降。
Don't wait too long: Male fertility declines with age, researchers have warned (picture posed by model)
And after 45, those who haven’t started a family and want one should start doing something about it.
那些過了45歲還沒有成家，且不打算獨(dú)身一輩子的男人，應(yīng)該抓緊時間趕快行動了。
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，怎樣解釋這類情況呢，戴斯.奧康納在72歲時有了第五子，羅德.斯圖爾特在66歲時第八次成為父親，另一些專家說，對該發(fā)現(xiàn)應(yīng)持保留態(tài)度。
The warning comes from a study
警告來自于一項(xiàng)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.
在這項(xiàng)研究的背景下，供體卵的使用為研究人員提供了條件，以區(qū)別男性與女性年齡的影響。
The donor eggs all came from young, healthy women and so any differences in pregnancy rate must be due to the sperm.
卵子皆來自年輕健康的女性，所以受孕率的變化一定是由精子決定的。
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.
區(qū)別很明顯，處于41歲到45歲之間的男人，每長一歲，生育能力下降幅度高達(dá)7%。45歲之后，下降速度甚至更快。
The average age of the men whose partners got treatment through IVF was 41.
一些妻子曾采用試管受精，而這些丈夫們的平均年齡為41歲。
But the average age of those in which the IVF was unsuccessful was 45, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference heard.
參加生殖醫(yī)學(xué)年度會議的美國學(xué)會從會上得知，試管受精失敗的丈夫們的平均年齡為45歲。
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歲時受孕率為60%，而45歲時僅為35%。
Researcher Paula Fettback, of the Huntington Medicina Reproductiva clinic in Brazil, said: ‘Age counts
巴西的亨廷頓醫(yī)學(xué)生殖臨床研究人員保拉.凡特貝克說，“年齡是有影響的。”
‘Men have a biological clock too. It is not the same as for women but they can’ t wait forever to have children.
“男人同樣有生物鐘。雖然它和女人的不同，但男人也不會一直能生育。”
‘They have to think about having children, especially after 45.’
“男人也必須考慮生育問題，尤其那些45歲以上的男人。”
A second study presented at the conference backed up the warning.
在年會上呈交的另一份研究報告支持這種警示。
There, fertility plummeted in male mice from a year old – equivalent to middle-age in people.
這項(xiàng)研究顯示，雄性老鼠年長一歲，生育能力大幅降低，和處于中年的人類情況相同。
Fewer eggs were fertilised and fewer embryos grew long enough to be used in IVF.
受精的卵子越來越少，充分發(fā)育可用作試管受精的胚胎也越來越少。
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.
受孕需要時間長，即使受孕成功，流產(chǎn)率高至60%，而由年輕動物授精的胚胎流產(chǎn)率為0。
The researchers, from the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they believed there would be ‘some parallel’ with men.
生殖醫(yī)學(xué)科羅拉多中心的研究人員稱，他們相信，它們的研究結(jié)果將“在某種程度上與男人相匹配”。
‘We found an abrupt reproductive deterioration in mid-life, equivalent to humans in their 40s.’
“在相當(dāng)于40多歲人類的野生動物身上，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)生殖能力的驟然退化。”
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.
其他研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，老生子患心臟缺損、自閉癥、精神分裂癥和癲癇的風(fēng)險更高，而且夭折的幾率幾乎多一倍。
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.
男人不斷地產(chǎn)生新鮮的精子時，隨時著時間的推移，身體“這部機(jī)器”會使這個過程減速且變得不完美。另外，隨著男人變老，基因突變可能會潛入精子。
But other experts said advised would-be fathers not to worry.
但是，另有專家說，受以上說法影響的準(zhǔn)父親們不必?fù)?dān)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.
芝加哥高級生殖中心的教授理查德.謝爾伯恩說，男生生育能力可能衰退，但衰退的程度微乎其微，幾十年內(nèi)可能僅衰退幾個百分點(diǎn)。
He added that IVF can compensate for many problems in sperm, in a way that it can’t with eggs.
他補(bǔ)充道，試管受精能彌補(bǔ)精子的多種不足，但對卵子卻無能為力。
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.
利物浦女子醫(yī)院的婦科會診醫(yī)生、英國生殖學(xué)會會員查爾斯.金士蘭，對該研究的質(zhì)量表示懷疑，并提出，女性卵子的質(zhì)量是舉足輕重的。
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.
他建議那些想保持良好生殖能力的男人們：飲食健康；不吸煙；只適度飲酒；保持活力；不洗熱水澡，因?yàn)榫酉矚g涼爽環(huán)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.
他補(bǔ)充說：“年輕的父親有很多優(yōu)勢。首當(dāng)其沖，你精力充沛。但年長的父親也有一定的優(yōu)勢——穩(wěn)定、睿智、或多一點(diǎn)經(jīng)濟(jì)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.’
“我將不會因我的生育能力明天可能衰退而急于生孩子。”
