A fertility study has found Canberra men become fathers at an older average age than the rest of the country, which could lead to health risks for children in the future.
ANU associate professor and senior specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology Steve Robson set out to understand fertility in Canberra men, and was shocked by what he found.
"There's been a lot of interest and work done on women and older women who delay starting families, but there's been very little work done on the male side of things," Dr Robson said.
"In our unit at the university we set out to ask 'What can we say about Canberra's men? Are there any lessons? Is there anything that Canberra families need to be worried about?'
"To our complete surprise, there was a real shift where Canberra dads were in a much older age group than the rest of Australia, so this really made us think. If the dads of Canberra babies tend to be older than the rest of the country, is there anything else about them that might be important to help from a community perspective?
"If men are getting older, perhaps we're seeing more fertility problems in the ACT. So one obvious way to find out if men are having fertility problems is if they're having sperm tests, insemination treatments or surgical sperm retrievals."
Dr Robson and his team discovered Canberra men aged 55 to 64 were having about 1.2 sperm tests per 10,000 men, while that number for this age group nationwide was only about 0.6 sperm tests per 10,000 men.
Insemination treatment and surgical sperm retrieval rates were also significantly higher for Canberra men compared to the rest of Australia. Canberrans had almost 180 inseminations per 10,000 men, whereas Australians overall had a bit more than 150. Canberra men were also having about 3.4 sperm retrievals per 10,000 men, while the nationwide number was about 2.5 per 10,000 men.
"This is all proof Canberra men are seeing more fertility problems, as that's really not something you would see in the rest of the country," Professor Robson said.
"We also found the rate of vasectomies in Canberra men was much higher overall, but in particular men in their 50s and 60s are having vasectomies done, which indicates they are deciding to stop trying for children at an older age.
"All of this data sends an incredible image that Canberra men are obviously wanting to preserve or stay fertile at a much later stage than other men in Australia."
What an older demographic of dads means for the future generation of Canberra is something Dr Robson says people "need to have a conversation about".
"There are huge concerns now coming out about the effect of COVID on a man's fertility, and while there's a lot of COVID in the ACT, we also have a group of older men who've been putting things off because of the pandemic - so could this make things worse for them in the next few years?
"The older the man is when a child is conceived, there's more likely a chance that children will have potential health issues like schizophrenia or a number of birth anomalies, so there's a huge implication for the ACT.
"You really have to think carefully about the choices you're making, in the same way a lot of women will have to make these choices. I think men have got to have the same kind of outlook.
"Ultimately it's about having a healthy child, which older dads need to consider."
