Recent studies conducted throughout the world are causing many scientists and doctors to wonder if perhaps men, like women, have a ticking biological clock. While studies are preliminary, some evidence shows that babies born to older fathers are more likely to have lower I.Q. scores and higher rates of schizophrenia, which could potentially mean a lot for shifting ideas about gender roles.
Women’s lives are so often forced to revolve around their “biological clock” and women are often judged for having a baby when they are “too young” or “too old.” Women tend to keep track of internal timelines and calendars that have often been considered irrelevant for men. An op-ed piece in the New York Times asks important questions about how gender roles could change if men start being held to the same judgments about good parenting and appropriate child-raising times. What would happen if men started to hear the clock tick?
The studies on the paternal age effect began in the 1950s and have continued to come in positive for one for many, many diseases and conditions. Autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders being the tip of the iceberg. Cancers, Alzheimer’s, MS, type 1 diabetes, Duchenne’s Musculars Dystrophy, hemophilia are just a few more of the disorders that rise in incidence with the age of the father or of the maternal grandfather at the mother’s birth. This is a very serious issue. Please read about it if you are interested, in one of my blogs or Pub Med Thanks for the posting.