Dr. Lucky Sekhon

So there's a lot of interesting research relating the male contribution to not just getting pregnant and staying pregnant, but also the health of the future child and even the health of the partner who's carrying the pregnancy.

So that's probably the biggest myth that I want to address.

Yeah, it's confusing to a lot of people because they're like, well, if I'm always making new sperm, there's always opportunity for, you know, fresh machinery and things aren't breaking down.

And I'm not you know, it's not like a scarcity issue.

So what's the problem?

It's really interesting.

Men can accumulate.

All of us do as we as a part of aging, right?

Our cells break down and we can accumulate mutations and those mutations can actually be passed on to the pregnancy and the future child through the sperm DNA.

And this is why they see a relationship when they look at age of the male partner and the prevalence of certain medical conditions in children.

And I don't want to fearmonger and I don't want people to say, oh my God, I'm, you know, 48 and I'm about to become a dad.

This means that, like,

know i should feel guilty in that you know my child is going to have all these problems it's not that simple but there is a pattern and it is something to be aware of and to be counseled about that you know autism neurodevelopmental disorders even some childhood cancers

There are studies that point to a strong relationship between advanced to paternal age, which by the way, there's no agreed upon definition.

Advanced maternal age is considered 35 and older.

That doesn't mean a bad thing.

Hello, I had my second baby at 37, 38.

But it's a real thing that we have an increased risk of certain complications.

Your body breaks down with time.

And so you have a higher risk of certain complications and need closer monitoring in pregnancy when you're older.