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Now, sitting down at my computer, I find this headline: Father’s Age Is Linked to Risk of Autism and Schizophrenia.
And this, in the body:
The age of mothers had no bearing on the risk for these disorders, the study found.I read the words aloud to Ed, who said, "We're a long ways away from refrigerator mothers."
3 comments:
I have to say that I did notice I was by quite a bit the youngest mom at my autistic daughter's Early Intervention preschool. I was 31 when she was born and my DH was 32. All the other moms appeared to be in their very late 30's or 40's. I don't know about the dads' ages since there was only 1 dad who was the primary caretaker (he looked to be in his 40's as well).
I heard this, but I've also read that it may be due to the father's (presumed) lack of social skills leading to later age of marriage, rather than an age-of-sperm or length-of-telomeres issue.
One way to put this hypothesis to the test would be to use a population sample from a polygamous culture, like Saudi Arabia, where older -- even VERY old -- men routinely take young brides as a second, third or fourth wife. See if there is a higher autism rate among children sired by older fathers.
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