Advanced paternal age and reproductive outcome

Women have been increasingly delaying the start of motherhood in recent decades. The same trend is seen also for men. The influence of maternal age on fertility, chromosomal anomalies, pregnancy complications, and impaired perinatal and post-natal outcome of offspring, has been thoroughly investigated, and these aspects are clinically applied during fertility and pregestational counseling. Male aging and reproductive outcome has gained relatively less attention. The purpose of this review is to evaluate updated and relevant literature on the effect of paternal age on reproductive outcome. Asian Journal of Andrology (2012) 14, 69-76; doi:10.1038/aja.2011.69; published online 12 December 2011