Father’s pass on more mutations with age leading to increased risk of disorders

Autism and schizophrenia are two different types of disorders that over the years have seemed to occur more frequently among individuals. Autism is a developmental disorder which is on a very wide spectrum usually characterized by repetitive behaviors or fixations, and difficulties in social environments. Schizophrenia on the other hand is a mental disorder that majorly affects the way a person acts, thinks, and behaves.

According to an article in the New York Times, experts believe to have found a reason for an increased diagnosis of Autism and Schizophrenia. From recent studies they conclude that males who have children later in their life rather than younger have an increased chance of having a child who has Autism or Schizophrenia. They believe this is due to random mutations that occur with advancing paternal age in males. Their study results showed that children who were born to twenty year old males only had about 25 possible mutations, whereas a child born to forty year old males had 65 mutations that could contribute to these two disorders. From this study they concluded that males over the age of forty have a two percent greater risk each year they wait to have children.

I believe this is something important to think about when having children because a lot of couples will wait later in life to have children after they have their career which is good, but sometimes waiting too long can have negative affects toward the child that we may not think about.