According to a recent study, even men might have to consider their biological clock for the process of conceiving a baby.

On Sunday, French researchers revealed that couples trying to have a baby when the man is over 40 will have more difficulty conceiving than if he is younger. For the study, researchers at France's Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction led by Dr. Stephanie Belloc monitored 21.239 cases of intrauterine inseminations (IUI) in more than 12,000 couples between January 2002 and December 2006.

Intrauterine insemination is a type of artificial insemination in which the sperm are washed or spun in a centrifuge to separate them from the seminal fluid and then placed directly into the uterus when the woman is ovulating. Intrauterine insemination is given to those couples where the woman has no fertility tribulations. The method is less invasive than in vitro fertilization.

The team examined the quality of the sperm and then recorded pregnancy, miscarriage and delivery rates. They found that the paternal impact on miscarriage was much stronger when men passed age 40, said Yves Menezo, who worked on the study.

The findings revealed that, as expected, the maternal age was closely associated with a decrease in the pregnancy rate as well as a higher miscarriage rate. The pregnancy rate decreased by 8.9 percent in women over 35 years, while it decreased by 14.5 percent in younger women.
But to everyone’s surprise, the study showed that the age of men led to decreases in the pregnancy rate, from 12.3 percent with fathers 30 years of age or younger, to 9.3 percent in fathers older than 45 years of age.

"Until now, gynaecologists only focused on maternal age, and the message was to get pregnant before the age of 35 or 38 because afterwards it would be difficult," said Belloc.