With age comes more genetic mutations?

Studies have shown that older fathers who still continue to have children increase their offspring's risk of inheriting genetic mutations. Among these mutations offspring can inherit are autism and schizophrenia. These studies have been tested among dozens of Icelandic fathers, in which their genomes were sequenced. Scientists have concluded that "sperm is continually being generated by dividing precursor cells, which acquire new mutations with each division. By contrast, women are born with their lifelong complement of egg cells."

From the research conducted on Icelandic families, scientists found that these fathers had four times as more mutations than the mothers. According to Nature, the father's age was responsible for almost all the variation in the newly inherited mutations in the child's genome. The older the father was, the number of new mutations that were passed down to the child rose exponentially. Researchers estimated that a 36 year old man would pass down twice as many mutations as a father in his 20s, while a 70 year old man would pass down eight times as many mutations to his offspring.