August 6, 2012

MEN: When to have Babies?


Many of us knows that having a baby we must only consider the age of women especially those who are near their menopausal stage. Most of us thought that men are capable of producing babies at any age without any difficulties and problems. However, recent studies shows that age of men should be also considered in planning to have a baby.

Why? Here are some reasons.
The genetic problem in men has its peak too. Let say as early as 15 or 16 men are already capable of fertilizing egg cells but they are still producing new sperms which often causes stillbirths – a male miscarriage. On the other hand, when men reaches the age of 30, testosterone levels begin to decline by a percent each year. Furthermore, at mid-30s, mutation starts to happen wherein a copy of the DNA is a little bit poor, sometimes, there are already a couple of errors and genetic abmormalities in the newly produced of sperms.
According to experts, for men having babies at the age of 30s, there is 1.5 greater risk of autism which increases five times in the age of 40s. Also, producing babies with schizophrenia (psychiatric disorder with symptoms of withdrawal into self),  doubles and triples at men with age of 40s and 50, respectively. Furthermore, studies revealed that men at age 50s, with wives 35 and up, had four times risk of having a child with down syndrome.
But every men are different. Some biological clock ran faster depending on their lifestyle.  However, there are other ways to prevent these abnormalities making the sperm quality stronger and better.

How?
Eating foods high in Omega-3 make better semen, According to researhes. However, consuming too much can also lower its quality. Here are some tips to have a better sperm quality.
Take enough exercise – This does not only help in having better health for men but also better quality semen. Exercising boosts the production of hormones like testosterone which supports the sperm and semen quality. On the other hand, too much exercise can is also bad because extreme workouts make the production of stress related hormones like cortisol that can change sex hormone levels. Doing exercise of 3-5 hours a week not more than 90 minutes per session is already enough.
Avoid second hand smokes – It is much better if you don't smoke. However, you are still prone from the possible deterioration of sperm thru second hand smoke, is much worse than smoking. Smoking can lower the quality of sperm that can affect fertility. Reasearchers found in a study that  mice made a change in the sperm DNA that have the chance to transfer to their offsprings when exposed to second hand smoke. Though the study was made on mice, it will have the most probability of same results as humans. We know that second hand smoke composed of more than 4,000 chemicals, 70 of them are known to be cancer-causing and cause genetic damage.
Keep cool – Putting your laptop on your lap or sitting heated things can damage your mighty "swimmers". Basically, anything that can heat your scrotum can really deteriorate what’s inside. Furthermore, you will be surprised that WiFi signal can really cause damage to your sperm cells according to studies. An increase of 0.55C (33F) in your scrotum can reduce the sperm count to almost 40%. Therefore, men should be cautious on hot tubs, heating pads and heated car seats. Aside form laptops, cellphones can also increase deterioration of sperms thru the radiation it emit. Studies showed that sperms exposed to cellphone radiation for about an hour have the difficulties in attaching egg cells.

Limit your canned goods intake - Product perse does not have effect on the "swimmers" quality. It is the packaging that has some great effect on them. Some food containers have BPA (bis-phenol A) in their  linings which can cause not only lowering the quality of these tiny "swimmers" but lowers the count as well as the percentage of live ones. Further studies that BPA acts like an estrogen which counteracts the purpose of male hormone.

Avoid taking steroids - Steroid helps men especially those who aimed for a muscular body for better sex appeal. But you must be cautious about this idea. Studies showed that taking anabolic steroids, whether injectables or pills, have a great impact on your health especially in reproductive system. Steroids tend to shrink the male gonad resulting to disturbed male hormone production or worst it shut off production of sperm.

To conclude, researchers suggest men to have their babies on their mid to late 20s but they does not close the possibility of having babies at 40s or older.