What’s good for the head may be bad for the sperm, says a new study in Fertility and Sterility. Half of the users of Paxil, out of 35 men tested, showed DNA damage to their sperm. DNA damage in turn would result in decreased fertility.The study author, Dr. Peter Schlegel, M.D., thinks that all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may have this effect since they work in similar ways. Hope-to-be dads should discuss their use of these drugs and the possibility of temporarily stopping their use while trying to get pregnant with their partner.

Yeah, you might freeze your butt off, but the one thing enjoying the cooler weather down there is your sperm. A new study in Germany says that men who spent an hour in heated seats showed an increase in testicle temperature that was significant to harm sperm (from 95˚ to 99.14F). Sperm can be affected at 96.8˚, so heated seats may be the culprit behind your low sperm count, say the study researchers as reported in Men’s Health.

For you men hoping to have a baby at a more advanced age, here are a list of your potential heroes:

David Bowie (at 53), Mick Jagger (at 57), Michael Douglas (at 58), Rod Stewart (at 60), Paul McCartney (at 61), Eric Clapton (at 59), Pierre Trudeau (72), Charlie Chaplin (at 73), Saul Bellow (at 84), Pablo Picasso (at 68), David Letterman (at 56), Larry King (at 65 and 66), Woody Allen (at 51), Warren Beatty (at 62), Dennis Quaid (50) and Jack Nicholson (at 53)

Move over Octomom: We found a dad with 86 kids!
And you think Octomom has her hands full. The aptly named Daad Abdul Rahamn claims to be the patriarch of the largest family in the world. The 63-year-old Dubai resident has 86 children–and two more on the way.

[From The Mommy Files : Move over Octomom: We found a dad with 86 kids!]

Yeah, having 86 kids is a lot, but it’s not like he gave birth to them all at once, or probably actively cares for them all – how could he? That’s so many kids, I doubt if he can remember all their names.

I also don’t know if this statistic really says that much about his fertility…

This one hits closer to home since I was already 43 when w had our first.

A recently released study finds that children of older dads score lower on IQ tests even after weighing socioeconomic factors.
Australian and US researchers analyzed test results of more than 33,000 US born children born to fathers between the ages of 14 and 66. The tests included reasoning, concentration, learning, memory and speaking and reading skills, at eight months, four years and seven years.

[From Fatherhood Examiner: Older Dads Father Dumber Kids?]

The lead author, John McGrath says that he was surprised by the results, since a lot of the “blame” for DNA errors usually goes to older eggs in the mom. Luckily, McGrath says the “effect we see is very small.”

Despite my advanced age, my kids are still among the smartest, most beautiful and well-behaved on the planet.

Ten percent of all couples have trouble conceiving, sometimes because of a physical problem and sometimes for unexplained reasons. But as reproductive technologies have advanced, many couples are being given help and hope.

It is unclear how many women are involuntarily childless. The stigma attached to infertility and living without children pressures many women to remain silent about their struggles, Mrs. Tsigdinos said, adding, “It’s not something you want to drop into conversation at a cocktail party.”

That dull ache unites women at all stages of their quest for children, and a growing online community helps them cope with the many facets of infertility. Mrs. Tsigdinos, a marketer for a venture capital company, began her own blog about the flip side of successful treatment, at www.Coming2Terms.com, when she could not find resources to help her cope with the decision to stop infertility treatments.

[From After Years of Fertility Treatments, Facing Life Without Children - NYTimes.com]

If you’re over 40, as a lot of parents are, you run the risk of decreasing levels of testosterone. An article in the Wall Street Journal recaps the controversy around testosterone replacement therapy for older men, especially with the negative associations with testosterone and sex.

The WSJ article points out:

There are even more unknowns about the risks and benefits of testosterone replacement. For one thing, many of the symptoms of low testosterone are very common in older men and could be related to other conditions. Some, like obesity, may lead to low testosterone rather than vice versa.

And there is lingering concern that testosterone could fuel prostate cancer — largely because drugs that reduce testosterone seem to shrink enlarged prostates and lower the risk of developing prostate cancer by 25%, according to the National Cancer Institute’s Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial.

On the other hand, an analysis of 18 studies in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute last month concluded that there is no correlation between testosterone levels and prostate-cancer risk. Another study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that men with low testosterone had higher mortality rates in general than those with higher levels, regardless of other risk factors.

If you do have some of the symptoms below, it would be worth discussing with your doctor. Family and work pressures can take their toll, but sometimes other things are to blame for fatigue and change of temperment.

Iconoculture.com, a leading trends website is predicting a new trend of money-back guarantees for fertility services. Some facilities are already offering refunds if birth is not the happy result of the $17,000 investment for women under 35. Their data says that 80% of couples would pay more for a money-back program.

Iconoculture goes on:

• Fertility seems to be one of the few areas of medicine in which clients feel entitled to a positive result. With 6.1 million couples in the U.S. (AZCentral.com 12.18.03) not able to conceive on their own, they’re willing to lay it down for a guaranteed bundle of joy.
• Hopeful couples appreciate physicians that understand the risks, monetary and emotional, that IVF entails. Warranty programs “prove” that IVF is a team effort and the clinic is as invested as the client.

An article in the New York Times today suggests a link between miscarriages and consumption of more than 200mg. of caffeine (2 cups of coffee or five cans of soda) per day for pregnant women.

I’m a skeptic when it comes to coffee fears since they have always proven to be unfounded. However, this study, just published in the American Jouranl of Obstetrics and Gynecology says that caffeine doubles miscarriage risk.

Li said many researchers think caffeine is harmful because it stresses the fetus’ immature metabolism. It may also decrease blood flow in the placenta, which could harm the fetus.

“To me, the safe dose is zero,” Li said. “If you really have to drink coffee, try to limit it to one cup or at the most two cups.” Or better yet, switch to decaffeinated beverages, he added.

Based on the findings, Dr. Tracy Flanagan, director of women’s health at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said pregnant women should think about limiting coffee to one cup a day, and they might want to cut it out entirely.

“So many causes of miscarriage are not controllable,” she said in a telephone interview. “This is an opportunity to do something active.”