Male partner age affects chance of miscarriage after IVF

IVF cycles are more likely to end in miscarriage when the male partner is over 45, according to research presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Paris.

By looking at donor egg cycles ­– where all the eggs are from young women – the researchers were able to exclude the female partner's age as a factor to highlight the effect of male age. They found that when the male partner is aged over 45, the miscarriage risk is higher, and the live birth rate is lower, compared to cycles where the male partner is younger.

'Traditionally, maternal age has been the central focus in reproductive medicine, but our results show that the age of the male partner also plays a crucial and independent role,' said the study's author, embryologist Dr Maria Cristina Guglielmo, from Eugin, Italy. 'Even when using eggs from young, healthy donors and transferring only a single, high-quality embryo, we observed poorer outcomes in men over 45.'

The researchers analysed results from the first blastocyst transfers of over 1700 IVF cycles using donor eggs from six clinics in Italy and Spain. Dividing these into two groups based on paternal age, they found that the fertilisation rates and embryo development outcomes were similar across both groups.

However, when looking at pregnancy outcomes there was a difference. In the over 45 group miscarriage rate was around 24 percent versus 16 percent for those aged 45 or younger. The live birth rates were 35 percent and 41 percent respectively.

Professor Carlos Calhaz-Jorge, former chair of ESHRE, said that the paper: 'draws attention to an often-overlooked factor in the IVF field … the results presented should be seriously considered during the counselling process for couples in which the male partner is over 45.'

'This study serves to remind us that male age has a marked influence on reproductive outcomes, such as miscarriage,' Professor Allan Pacey, who was not involved in the study, told BioNews. Professor Pacey is an andrologist and deputy dean of biology, medicine and health at the University of Manchester. 'One of the reasons we don't recruit sperm donors older than age 45 is because the outcomes are poorer and there is a measurable impact on the health outcomes of any children born to older donors'.

Dr Guglielmo suggested that DNA replication errors in sperm production could accumulate with age, as well as fragmentation of the sperm DNA and epigenetic changes.

She plans to expand her work to deepen understanding of these mechanisms, as well as evaluate 'the long-term health and developmental outcomes of children conceived through donor egg cycles with older fathers'.