Judy Foreman

Nationally Sindicated Fitness, Health, and Medicine Columnist

  • HOME
  • Books
  • BIO
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
  • Q&A
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT

Q & A Search

Q & A Topics

Acupuncture Airplane Masks Alcohol Abuse Alcoholic Cooking Alexander Technique Allergies Anesthesia Antibiotics & Food Antidepressants Anxiety & Exercise Appetite & Sickness Arthritis Arthritis & Tendonitis Arthritis Surgery Artificial Sweeteners Aspirin & Airplanes Aspirin & Ibuprofen Asthma Inhalers Autism Baby Faces Back Pain Bad Breath Bad Shoes Balance & Age Bariatric Surgery Bed Wetting Beta Blockers Black Cohosh Body Fat Body Mass Index Body Odor Bogus Warnings Bone Density Botox Injections Bovine Hormones BP Machines Breast Cancer Breastfeeding & Cancer Broken Heart Burning Mouth Syndrome Burning Toast Butt Surgery Calcium Scan Cancer Risk Cancer Vaccine Cancer-Prone Personality Canker Sores Cellphones Chewing Gum Chewing Ice Children & Anesthesia Chinese Medicine Chiropractic Treatment Chlorine Chorus & Health Christmas Tree Allergy Clemens Treatments Clogged Sinuses Coenzyme Q10 Cold Cold Contagion Cold Medications and the Prostate Cold/Flu Colonoscopy Colonoscopy Risk Computer Use Constipation Contact Lenses Cosmetics Dark Circles Declining Fertility Dental X-rays Deodorant & Breast Cancer Diabetes & Feet Diet & Acid Balance Dietitian Disposable Contacts Diverticulitis Dogs or Cats Drug Information Ear Infections Ear Lobes Ear Wax Eating Broccoli Eating Protein Eggs Electric Shocks Electronic Records Emergency Room Emotions & Cancer Endometriosis Energy Drinks Estrogen & The Skin Estrogen Patches Ethics Consult Exercise & Appetite Exercise & Health Exercise & Stretching Expired Medicines Eye-color Facial Muscles Falling Asleep Feeling Cold Female Hair Loss Fertility Drug Clomid Fertility Monitors Fever Fighting Fever Fingernails First Aid Kits Fizzy Drinks Flat Feet Flu Vaccine Forehead Thermometers Free Radicals French Fries Frozen Chicken Gallblader Polyps Garlic Garlic Supplements General Anesthesia Grapefruit Juice Gray Hair Green Light Laser Therapy Green Tea Gregariousness Grilled Foods Group Therapy Growth Hormone Grumpiness Hair Relaxer Hand Sanitizers HDLs & LDLs Heading Hearing Loss Heart Cancer? Heart Disease Heart Problems Heart Rate & Exercise HIV Medication Home Thermostat Hospital Discharge Hospital Rash Humidifier Use Husbands Age & Birth Defects Hydrocephalus? Hyperactivity Ibuprofen Ibuprofen for Colds Inflammatory Breast Cancer Insomnia Interrupted sleep Iron Supplements Is Sedation Safe Itchy Feet Jogging & Smoking Joint Lubricants Keyboard/Bacteria Kidney Problems Kidney Stone Kidney Stones Kids Food Knuckles Lactose Intolerance Laser Surgery LASIK surgery Lead in Lunch Boxes Liposuction Liver Failure Local Honey Lose Fat Low Blood Pressure Low-Carb Diet Lung Cancer Lupus Macular Degeneration Magnets & Pain Mail Stool Samples Male Baldness Marathon Runners Medical Treatment Meditation Melanoma Self Test Menstrual Cramps Menstruation Suppression Mesotherapy Migraines and Breast Cancer MiniTransplant Miscarriage Moles Mononucleosis Morning or Evening Execise? Mosquito Repellent Mothball Fumes MSG Muscle Builder Muscle Pain Muscle Tears & Ibuprofen Nasal Steroids Newborns Hips Night Terrors Nosebleeds Oats are Great Open Biopsy Osteoporosis Osteoporosis Drug Pacifier Use Painkillers Pajamas vs. Clothes Pelvic Muscle Tear Penicillin Allergy Pets & Health Pets Colds & Flu Pilates Pins and Needles Plantar Fasciitis Poison Ivy Polio Prayer Books Preeclampsia Pressure Ulcers Probiotic Bacteria Probiotics Prostate Biopsy Prostate Cancer Protective Fabrics Psoriasis Red Wine Reflux/Endoscopy Restless Leg Resveratrol Retail Health Clinics Running & Knee Injury Running Nose Salt Schizophrenia Seasonal Affective Disorder Shingles Sleep Apnea Sleep Deprivation Sleeping Pills Smiling-Depression Sneezing Snow Shoveling Spleen Store Bought Glasses Strength Training Stretching Stroke Test Sudden Deafness Sugar Guidelines Sun Screens Sun-seeking Sunburn Sunglasses Sunscreens Swearing & Pain Swimming Tai Chi & Health Tanning Palors Teen Pregnancy Teenage Depression Teeth Grinding Thyroid Cancer Tight Clothes Tinnitus TMJ /TMD Toenail Fungus Toilet Seat Tongue Piercings Tonsils Toothbrush Toothbrushes Trampoline Treadmill Exercise Urinary Tract Infections Urination Varicose Veins Viagra Virtual Colonography Vitamin D Vodka Warts Weekly Workouts Weight Gain Weight Loss Weight Loss Surgery Wet Hair & Colds Whiten Teeth Yoga & Bone Density

I’m 31 and my husband is 51. Is there an increase in birth defects due to the husband’s age?

January 18, 2005 by

Yes, though the risk of having a child with a birth defect due to the father’s advancing age is hard to quantify and is probably “very tiny – a fraction of one percent,” said Dr. Aubrey Milunsky, director of the Center for Human Genetics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Still, the more researchers probe the genetic risk of birth defects, the more they are finding that it is not just a woman’s age that raises risk, but the man’s, too. “The age of the male does matter and the genetic quality of sperm does decline with age,” said Dr. Harry Fisch, professor of clinical urology at Columbia University Medical Center.

In birth defects associated with advancing maternal age, the problem is often with a whole chromosome. Down syndrome, for instance, occurs when the fetus gets an extra copy of chromosome 21, as occurs more often in women over 35.

With paternally-caused defects, the problem is usually a mutation in just one gene. Most diseases that pop up for the first time in a family are due to mutations in the DNA of the father, not the mother.

One reason is that, unlike eggs, sperm cells are constantly dividing to make more sperm. “Because this happens in men constantly, there’s more of a chance for mistakes to occur,” said Dr. Ethylin Wang Jabs, a geneticist at Johns Hopkins University.

In 2001, Dr. Dolores Malaspina, a Columbia psychiatrist, found that advancing paternal age accounted for as many as one in every four cases of schizophrenia. Other conditions associated with advancing paternal age include dwarfism, Marfan’s syndrome (which can lead to fatal rupture of a major blood vessel) and malformation of the skull, hands and feet. For more specific questions, it might be wise to consult a genetic counselor.

Copyright © 2025 Judy Foreman