Study suggests men should freeze sperm before age 35

PHILADELPHIA (FOX 29) - A new study suggests men should freeze their sperm before the age of 35.

Collecting, analyzing, and storing sperm to make future families possible at the Main Line Fertility Center Lab in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

"As far we know, they can be stored indefinitely. There are some samples stored for over 40 years and resulted in healthy births," Dr. Sharon Anderson said.

The percentage of older men fathering children has increased over the past 40 years. Researchers behind a new study out of Rutgers University strongly suggests men start freezing their sperm before age 35.

"We naively thought sperm was relatively ageless and we've been recognizing over the past decade or more that there are certain problems when men are over 50 for instance or maybe 45," Fertility expert Dr. Michael Glassner explained.

Dr. Glassner, who's nearly 60 himself, says he never even thought about freezing his sperm. He now has a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old. He says children of older dads could be born prematurely, higher likelihood of autism, ODC, and other issues.

"You can't test for any of these and there's no marker to say this 55-year-old is more likely to give us a problem than somebody else," he said.

He says sperm banking makes the most sense for men who are getting a vasectomy at a relatively early age or cancer treatment.

"I think if a gentleman came in and said he wants to get married in his late 40s, yeah, freeze your sperm but I don't think proactively people need to be running out and spending the money at 35."