What do Charlie Chaplin, Robert De Niro and Pablo Picasso have in common?
It sounds like the first line of a bad joke… but the answer is that they were all pretty old when they became fathers!
We all know about the biological clock that women have. Fertility declines as we age and once menopause hits, that’s it. It’s definitely over.
But it’s not exactly a secret that men can still conceive even though they’re old.
Charlie Chaplin: 73
Robert DeNiro: 68
Clint Eastwood: 66
Steve Martin: 67
and I could go on and on!
Male Age Matters!
So you might think that for men, age doesn’t matter. Old guys can still get women pregnant.
Well, yes, BUT… a new study showed that for each year the male partner is older, his fertility tends to decrease at a rate of about 4%.
I can hear you think: but old men tend to have older partners too. True, but that 4% is actually independent of the woman’s age!
So for all the men out there… You have a bit of a biological clock ticking too!
Reference:
Horta et al. 2019. Human Reproduction, 34(12), 2523-2532.
