I was under the impression the drop off for men both progressed slower and was less severe than it was for women.
e.g. a 40 something woman has the same chance of having offspring with Downs Syndrome or other congenital defects as two cousins in their twenties inbreeding, while a 80 year old man with a 20 something woman is still less at risk than both of the aforementioned pairs.
As I was typing that comment I was thinking someone is going to ask me for source :-) I dont have a citation, just the class notes from my wifes medical undergraduate classes. Im sure if I did the effort, I could google a study or two for you. Of course it's not just the genetics, but also a woman's ability to carry full term. Younger bodies are better at that. Nevertheless, for someone preoccupied with living life to the fullest, waiting till your older to have children, and increasing the chance for a down syndrome baby is a bit counter productive.
for someone preoccupied with living life to the fullest, waiting till your older to have children, and increasing the chance for a down syndrome baby is a bit counter productive
In what way? Increasing the odds from 1:1000 to 10:1000 in exchange for 20 years of carefree living seems like a pretty good tradeoff to me.
