The other face of advanced paternal age: a scoping review of its terminological, social, public health, psychological, ethical and regulatory aspects

Abstract

BACKGROUND There is a global tendency for parents to conceive children later in life. The maternal dimension of the postponement transition has been thoroughly studied, but interest in the paternal side is more recent. For the moment, most literature reviews on the topic have focused on the consequences of advanced paternal age (APA) on fertility, pregnancy and the health of the child. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE The present review seeks to move the focus away from the biological and medical dimensions of APA and synthesise the knowledge of the other face of APA. SEARCH METHODS We used the scoping review methodology. Searches of interdisciplinary articles databases were performed with keywords pertaining to APA and its dimensions outside of biology and medicine. We included scientific articles, original research, essays, commentaries and editorials in the sample. The final sample of 177 documents was analysed with qualitative thematic analysis. OUTCOMES We identified six themes highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of APA research. The ‘terminological aspects’ highlight the lack of consensus on the definition of APA and the strategies developed to offer alternatives. The ‘social aspects’ focus on the postponement transition towards reproducing later in life and its cultural dimensions. The ‘public health aspects’ refer to attempts to analyse APA as a problem with wider health and economic implications. The ‘psychological aspects’ focus on the consequences of APA and older fatherhood on psychological characteristics of the child. The ‘ethical aspects’ reflect on issues of APA emerging at the intersection of parental autonomy, children’s welfare and social responsibility. The ‘regulatory aspects’ group different suggestions to collectively approach the implications of APA. Our results show that the field of APA is still in the making and that evidence is lacking to fully address the issues of APA. The review suggests promising avenues of research such as introducing the voice of fathers of advanced age into the research agenda. WIDER IMPLICATIONS The results of this review will be useful for developing policies and preconception health interventions that consider and include prospective fathers of advanced age.

Development of thalamus mediates paternal age effect on offspring reading: A preliminary investigation

“…Since a consensus on the definition of advanced PatAGE remains lacking (Couture, Delisle, Mercier, & Pennings, 2021), in this study we treated PatAGE as a continuous variable rather than separating children into different groups. To examine the relationship between PatAGE and reading, we first calculated the zero‐order correlation.…”

Age-associated epigenetic changes in mammalian sperm: implications for offspring health and development

“…APA is associated with increased use of ART ( Bertoncelli Tanaka et al , 2019 ; American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, 2017) due to a significant decrease in age-related female fertility for a couple and the slightly decreased male fertility, and because ART is considered generally safe. A father’s age for ART is rarely regulated in guidelines, except in Germany, where the age limit for ART is 50 years ( Belaisch-Allart et al , 2016 ; Couture et al , 2021 ). ART spans the periconception period from gametogenesis, fertilization and early embryonic development, coinciding with an intense epigenetic reprogramming in germ cells.…”

“…In the past decade, data accumulating from epidemiological studies showed that the paternal age at conception is associated with an increased risk of de novo mutations ( Smits et al , 2022 , reviewed in Goldmann et al , 2019 ), which have significant effects on pregnancy outcomes and offspring health ( Belloc et al , 2014 ; Sharma et al , 2015 ; Khandwala et al , 2018 ). As noted in recent reviews ( Brandt et al , 2019 ; Couture et al , 2021 ), there is no consensus for the definition of advanced paternal age (APA), although some professional societies define APA as greater than 40 years of age.…”

Development of thalamus mediates paternal age effect on offspring reading: A preliminary investigation

“…Since a consensus on the definition of advanced paternal age remained lacking (Couture, Delisle, Mercier, & Pennings, 2020), in this study we treated PatAGE as a continuous variable rather than separating children into different PatAGE groups. To examine the relationship between PatAGE and reading, we first calculated the zero-order correlation between them.…”