I just wanted to wish you all the best. I really empathize. It felt unfair to discover the statistics on birth defects vs age of the parents -- there's almost a linear correlation between age and defects, and no one ever told me. I'll be 34 in Feb, and I've wondered many times whether I'd be a good dad if our kiddo pops out with a few missing pieces. (We're finally in a position where IVF is on the horizon, so it's a constant worry.)
It's incredibly inspiring to have an example like yours. Thank you so much for trying to connect with researchers to help them understand the disease, even though it "has no value for you or your son." Your attempt has a lot of value as a model to follow. I'll try to do the same thing if we end up in a similar position. Good luck!
My wife and i had kids at your age and 15 years on we're all doing very well. We know older parents, also doing well. We were told there were some risks increased for an older mother, but with hindsight these were small percentage chance of something to a slightly larger but still very small percentage. True, no one wants to be the rare bad case. If you're planning pregnancy, i think i recall it's good if the mother has Folic Acid, but I'm no scientist. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/about.html Good luck, I hope it works out.
> A woman’s peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline becomes more rapid once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely for most women.
> Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is the most common chromosome problem that occurs with later childbearing. The risk of having a pregnancy affected by Down syndrome is
> 1 in 1,480 at age 20
> 1 in 940 at age 30
> 1 in 353 at age 35
> 1 in 85 at age 40
> 1 in 35 at age 45 [2]
My jaw dropped.
I probably shouldn't claim "birth defects" in the general sense, just Down syndrome specifically. But the wording of "most common chromosome problem" seems to imply that this is a pretty reasonable inference.
Had no idea I was risking my kiddo's health so much by waiting.
It's incredibly inspiring to have an example like yours. Thank you so much for trying to connect with researchers to help them understand the disease, even though it "has no value for you or your son." Your attempt has a lot of value as a model to follow. I'll try to do the same thing if we end up in a similar position. Good luck!