Age and fertility also an issue for men...

I saw this on the news last night, but only caught the headline as I was leaving the house for my spin class.

So, when I came across the headline again on SMH today, I thought I should give the article a read.

Its really interesting that doctors have now found clinical evidence that its the "DNA damaged sperm" of men over 35 y/o that causes failed pregnancies and increases the chance of a miscarriage.

"She said sperm with DNA damage, common in older men, was still able to enter the egg during intrauterine insemination, which could result in failure to conceive or miscarriage.

But in the case of in vitro fertilisation, the outer membrane of the egg stopped sperm with DNA damage penetrating."

The 'she' is Dr Stephanie Belloc, the study's author.

So, basically what it comes down to, is that if a man and woman are both older than 35 y/o, then it would be really, really hard to conceive a child. Didn't we already know that? I guess, what this shows is that there is proof of why a persons age is an important factor when trying to conceive.

DNA damage...who would have thought that your DNA could be damaged by the age of 35? I didn't even know DNA could be damaged. I mean, so much so that you body (the female egg) knows to reject a "DNA damaged sperm".

Which is basically saying "Sorry, your sperm is just not good enough!"

Ha! Nature sure knows what it is doing...and we're only just finding out now.