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Asked by BLEXT BOY to Ivy, George, Daniel, Christina, Cheryl on 17 Jan 2017.
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Christina Obiero answered on 17 Jan 2017:
As a woman ages, the likelihood of chromosomal abnormalities increases, hence the chances of having a child with a birth defect increases. But the overall risk of older mothers having children with genetic diseases is low.
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Cheryl Andisi answered on 17 Jan 2017:
Hi Blext Boy,
It is true that the risk of getting a baby with a genetic disorder increases with the age of the mother. Some of these disorders include down’s syndrome (trisomy 21) and turner’s syndrome (monosomy). As the names suggests, these are defects that will occur during meiosis, such that the resultant sex cells-gametes (sperm and ova) have either less or more than the expected haploid chromosome number.
So far, I have not seen any studies that has identified the reason why these abnormalities increase with a mothers age. However, it is accepted that after about 35 years of age, the risk increases significantly.
Overall, the risk remains low. With advances in technology, I do not think this should be a major worry- i.e. ladies, do not rush to get children before you are ready because of this. It is now possible to store eggs and sperm until you are ready to “use” eg, Janet Jackson just delivered a healthy baby at 50 years after using eggs she had stored. In addition, there are so many ways of checking for these disorders even before a child is born. -
George Mochamah answered on 17 Jan 2017:
Hi, the reasons vary. Normally, as we get older not just the women alone, we get exposed to many environmental hazards over time which might have an effect. In most cases, older women would get pregnant from equally older men. Now, it is known that older men increasingly form defective sperms which they pass to their older women. But in our society, we blame the women and not the men. very sad
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