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."
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).
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteOne 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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