You need to have children before it’s too late! The Daily Mail reports that scientists are now warning that men should not have children at too old an age, and that it is likely that the sperm of older men have “genetic mutations” that make their children vulnerable to autism or schizophrenia. There are increasing physical signs that as men age, more and more genetic mutations will occur, leading to testicular stem cell abnormalities. Some studies even suggest that children born to men of advanced age are prone to Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, heart disease and cancer later in life. Scientists also warn that men in their 40s are twice as likely to inherit mutations in potentially disease-causing genes than men in their 20s. Many high-profile men are known to have had children later in life, for example, Steve Martin, the American “white-headed comedian,” welcomed his first child at age 67. For decades, scientists have speculated that there is an association between older men and congenital malformations in infants, but only recently has it been confirmed that the study, published in the latest issue of the journal Nature, proves that men do inherit more mutated genes to their children as they age. The researchers sequenced the DNA of 78 Icelandic parents and their children and found that there was a link between the age of the father and mutations in the children, with mutations in the DNA of children of older fathers associated with autism and schizophrenia, among other things. However, the mother’s age was not relevant, and the team found that 97 percent of the mutations in the children came from the father. Kari Stefansson, PhD, of Decoding Genetics, who led the study, said, “Usually society is more concerned about the age of the mother, but the study shows that the development of schizophrenia and autism in children is directly related to the father’s age at childbirth, not the mother.” Professor Andrew Wilkie, a clinical geneticist at the University of Oxford in England, has found an association between men of advanced childbearing age and children with Abel’s disease, a rare skeletal disorder that can cause children to have elongated heads. Wilkie noted that men are likely to have a higher probability of aging-related phenomena due to their older childbearing years. Not only do men of advanced age suffer from memory loss and poor skin elasticity, their sperm quality declines as well. Unlike women, men continue to make new sperm throughout their lives. Every 16 days, cells in the testes divide and the DNA in each cell replicates into a new individual for the production of new sperm. The body has a more precise replicative nature, but inevitably some errors are made and the newly formed sperm will contain errors in the DNA, which is called a genetic mutation. As men age, the ability to replicate will diminish, effectiveness will decrease, and more genetic mutations will appear in male sperm. If the mutated sperm is conceived and forms a fetus, the fetus will grow up with more health problems