In a world where US birth rates were declining, one man decided to embark on a heroic journey to father as many children as he could. That man is called Robert De Niro and he has just had his seventh child at the grand old age of 79. His new daughter is around half a century younger than his oldest kids.
Oldest fathers: medical considerations
The website of the world record authority Guinness World Records lists the oldest father ever as Australian Les Colley (1898-1998), who allegedly fathered his ninth child at age 92 with a Fijian woman he met through a dating agency.
The acting legend's oldest child is 51 years old. Robert De Niro has welcomed another child. The 79-year-old is now the father of seven.
There's no maximum age that stops a man from being able to have a baby. You can become a father long into your older years, but there are risks.
While certain risks may rise with age, men continue to produce sperm throughout their lives and can father healthy children into old age.
Although men never stop producing sperm throughout their lives, sperm production does begin decreasing after age 35. Motility, volume and genetic quality of sperm of older men are less likely to achieve a successful pregnancy even in younger women.
Men can produce sperm from puberty to a ripe old age and continue to father children as long as they do so. Women, on the other hand, have a limited fertile window. Past 51 – the average age of menopause – they cease to release any eggs and become infertile. Both men and women are delaying having children.
Many people think that while a woman's fertility starts to decline in her 30s and 40s, men can continue to conceive children naturally in their 70s and 80s. However, while sperm production continues throughout a man's life, the quality and concentration of the sperm may start to decline.
We've all heard about men in their 80s and 90s fathering children, but this is rare. A father's age also affects the chance of a couple getting pregnant. It takes longer for partners of men older than 40 years to conceive.
The scientists also note that at the age of 35, the proportion of sperm carrying an X chromosome also seems to increase, meaning older dads are more likely to have daughters. In human reproduction, the Y chromosome is responsible for making a male child.
Though there are two unconfirmed reports of older fathers, Les Colley holds the official record after his partner gave birth to a son in 1993. The Australian pensioner had his ninth child, Oswald, to his third wife two months before he turned 93.
Erramatti Mangayamma at age 74 gave birth to twins in India last week after becoming pregnant through IVF, making her the oldest person ever to give birth, according to her doctors, and reigniting debate over so-called geriatric pregnancies.
From a biological standpoint, experts recommend a man is best suited to fatherhood from his late 20s to early 30s. It is still possible for men to father a child in their 50s and older. According to Guinness World Records, the oldest man to father a child was 92 years old at the time of the birth.
On the other hand, old fathers (≥ 40 years) could increase risks of cardiovascular abnormalities, facial deformities, urogenital abnormalities, and chromosome disorders in their offspring.
Allegedly Vassilyev also had six sets of twins and two sets of triplets with a second wife, for another 18 children in eight births; he fathered a total of 87 children.
Some fairly old men can (and do) father children. The volume of fluid ejaculated usually remains the same, but there are fewer living sperm in the fluid. Some men may have a lower sex drive (libido). Sexual responses may become slower and less intense.
There is very limited data about men in extreme old age (80 yr and older). Of older men who produce spermatozoa in their ejaculates, sperm motility, a manifestation of viability and fertilizing capacity, tends to be reduced. The ability of men to impregnate their wives gradually reduces from age 25 onward.
A 2019 study determined that a father's age has a significant impact on a child's health and development. The study found that babies born to older fathers had an increased risk of cleft lip or palate, heart defects, autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
A trained expert checks your sperm count, their shape, movement, and other characteristics. In general, if you have a higher number of normal-shaped sperm, it means you have higher fertility. But there are plenty of exceptions to this. A lot of guys with low sperm counts or abnormal semen are still fertile.
Similar to female fertility, male fertility also changes with age. As men get older, the quality of their sperm can decline, among other challenges, leading to overall declines in fertility.
While a 92-year-old woman delivering a 60-year-old baby may sound like a bizarre plot twist from the movie “Benjamin Button,” it's true. Huang Yijun, 92, of southern China, recently delivered a child which she'd been carrying for well over half a century. The baby wasn't alive, however.
At what age do men stop producing sperm? Men typically never stop producing sperm, but there is a measurable decline in sperm quality as a man ages. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a set of benchmarks, known as semen parameters, for healthy sperm, including count, morphology (shape), and motility (movement).