Are you too old to be a father?

With people living longer and the cost of living always increasing, it makes sense to wait a while before having kids, right? You’re more stable, your career path is set and you’re not living in a Uni boarding house anymore. Makes perfect sense.

Well a new study published in Nature has thrown a spanner in the works.

According to scientists at deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, not only do you pass on four times as many genetic mutations to your child as the mother does, but the number of mutations you pass on also increases exponentially as you age. In fact, a 36-year-old man passes on twice as many mutations as a man of 20, and a 70-year-old eight times as many.

So what’s the problem? As dads, we’re a rapidly ageing population. In 1993, just 25 per cent of fathers to be were aged 34-54; a decade later, it was 40 per cent.

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“The older we are as fathers, the more likely we will pass on our mutations,” says lead author Kári Stefánsson. “The more mutations we pass on, the more likely that one of them is going to be deleterious.”

This means that men who start families in their thirties, forties and beyond could potentially be increasing the chances that their children will develop autism, schizophrenia and other diseases often linked to new genetic mutations.

Related: "The best advice my father ever gave me"

The good news for older dads:

- Stefánsson was also quick to point out that the majority of these age-related genetic mutations are harmless, and that much more research is required before a definitive causal link between older fathers and heritable diseases can be established

- All those reasons you stated before – stability, income, lifestyle – are all still very valid reasons not to bring a child into the world just yet if you aren’t equipped to care for it

- There is also a body of evidence to suggest that the ageing process (which also lowers your testosterone) makes you more calm, more patient and just generally better-prepared to be a father