Women who put off starting a family into their 40s are 50 per cent more likely to have a child with autism, research has found.

a thoughtful web.

Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!

Women who put off starting a family into their 40s are 50 per cent more likely to have a child with autism, research has found. · 2

Grendel · 3505 days ago

telegraph.co.uk · #health · #science

Women's eggs deteriorate in quality as they get older and they develop more abnormalities which can make it harder to conceive and makes health problems more likely during pregnancy and in the baby.

tweet · print · htmlmarkup tips · 0

shiny36 · 3505 days ago · link ·

It's interesting that the father's age only matters for women under 30 years old (as in, the father's age affects the incidence of autism). For older mothers the age of the father does not seem to have any significant effect. I wonder why that is.

+discuss+discuss

–

Grendel · 3504 days ago · link ·

I have no idea. My completely uneducated guess is that maybe there's some kind of limit to how much the age of the parent affects the incidence, so past a certain age it doesn't matter any more if the father is old himself because the age of the mother is enough to guarantee a higher rate of autism?