Dr. Judith Reichman 'Today' show contributor • Profile • E-mail

Q: I'm 35 years old and my husband is 10 years older than me. I've heard that fertility decreases for women over the age of 35, but what about my husband's? Is his fertility also affected by age?

A: You're right that after 35 fertility rates in women decrease. Actually, not to depress you, but fertility begins a gradual decline starting at the age of 25. There is a definite acceleration (or, more descriptively, a deceleration) from 35 to 40, though, and the "oh my god, it's really too late" stage starts in women at the age of 45.

Fertility decreases as we age because we're born with a very set number of egg precursors called oocytes. We start with 6 to 7 million oocytes in our ovaries when our mothers are five months pregnant with us (at 20 weeks gestation). This goes down to 1 to 2 million at birth and 25,000 at the age of 37. By the time we hit menopause, there are only a few hundred oocytes left.

And what about men? Until now we thought that age wasn't a big deal when it comes to male fertility. We've all heard of older actors who fathered children with younger wives, such as Anthony Quinn and Jack Lemmon. However, an article in a 2006 issue of Fertility and Sterility has entered doubt into the chauvinistic concept that old sperm work, whereas old eggs don't. We're now not the only ones concerned about our aging gonads.

Investigators of this study looked at a national in vitro fertilization registry and examined pregnancies in 1,938 couples from 59 in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in France. They avoided the issue of compounded fertility problems in the woman by only including couples in which the woman's tubes were blocked or absent. The study found that for women between the ages of 35 and 37 who were trying to have a baby with men older than 40, the pregnancy rate was half that of a similarly aged woman and a man under 40. The pregnancy rate didn't really change even if the woman was slightly older (age 38 to 40).

Another recent study looked at a European population of couples who were trying to conceive naturally. It found a nearly three times increase in the rate of not conceiving after 12 months of attempting pregnancy in women ages 35 to 39 and men 40 and older, as compared to the same age group of women and younger men.

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In addition to diminished fertility, older men are also more likely to father autistic children, according to research from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Their study looked at more than 100,000 children and found that those born to fathers aged 40 or older were more than six times as likely to have autism and related disorders than those whose father's were under 30.

Finally, just to put the last puncture in the thought balloon that a man's age doesn't count when it comes to having babies, the risk of spontaneous abortion increases when the father is over 40 and the mother is over 35 above and beyond that seen with an increase in maternal age alone.

Dr. Reichman’s Bottom Line: Fertility and pregnancy success with age is no longer the sole concern of women. It's the concern of both parents, since a paternal age of over 40 is indeed a risk factor for a couple's ability to conceive.

Dr. Judith Reichman, the “Today” show's medical contributor on women's health, has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for more than 20 years. You will find many answers to your questions in her latest book, "Slow Your Clock Down: The Complete Guide to a Healthy, Younger You," which is now available in paperback. It is published by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins.

PLEASE NOTE: The information in this column should not be construed as providing specific medical advice, but rather to offer readers information to better understand their lives and health. It is not intended to provide an alternative to professional treatment or to replace the services of a physician.

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