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Miscarriage risk climbs with dad's age

Men have biological clock too

1 August 2006 12:09 GMT / By Stuart Miles

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New research has found that a couple's risk of having a pregnancy end in miscarriage appears to rise along with the father's age, regardless of how old the mother is.

In the study of nearly 14,000 women who were pregnant in the 1960s and 70s, researchers found the risk of miscarriage was 60% greater when the father was 40 or older than when he was 25 to 29-years-old.

What's more, age made a difference even for men in their 30s. Miscarriage risk was about three times greater when the man was between 35 and 39 than if he were younger than 25.

The findings add to evidence showing that, like women, men have a biological clock.

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