The paper, presented by Eugin Clinic, analysed the results of 4,487 cases of couples in which the man’s average age was 41.
A study has analysed for the first time what effect the man’s age has in an IVF treatment with donor eggs. And the conclusion is surprising: when a woman undergoes an assisted reproduction treatment using donor eggs from women aged between 18 and 35 years, the father’s age does not influence the likelihood of getting pregnant.
The study, conducted by Eugin Clinic and published in the sector’s prestigious journal, Human Reproduction, demonstrates that even though semen quality gets worse, the passing of the years in men does not interfere with their partner’s likelihood of getting pregnant – provided that they are undergoing in vitro fertilisation treatment with donor eggs from young, healthy women without known fertility problems.
The work, led by Dr. Rebeca Begueria, a specialist on the Eugin Clinic medical team, analysed a broad sample of 4,487 cases, in which women with a mean age of 40 years were undergoing IVF treatment using donor eggs and whose male partner had an average age of 41 years.
“Of the more than four thousand cases analysed, pregnancy occurred in 47.8% of them”, said Dr. Begueria. “The results of the study provide us with enough scientific evidence to conclude that the father’s age does not interfere with the probability of pregnancy after this kind of treatment”, said Dr. Begueria.
Tendency to delay paternity
Like women, men are increasingly putting off the age at which they become first time parents. “While it is true that advanced paternal age may be associated with a loss of semen quality”, says the doctor, “it has no effect on the woman’s pregnancy rate after undergoing the donor egg treatment” she says.
On the other hand, when performing a conventional in vitro fertilisation treatment without resorting to donor eggs it can be seen that the father’s age does have an influence on the chances of pregnancy. “The father’s age does play an important role in the case of in vitro fertilisation where the woman uses her own eggs,” explains Dr.Begueria, “acting in detriment to the chances of the couple getting pregnant”, she continues.
In the study, they considered the cases of couples who were undergoing an in vitro fertilisation treatment with partner’s sperm and donor eggs by means of the ICSI technique (acronym from English, IntraCytoplasmatic Sperm Injection). This technique was initially developed in order to treat cases of male infertility, but at present, due to its effectiveness in the fertilisation rate, it is used in the majority of in vitro fertilisation procedures.
