Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Interview with Dr. Dorothy Mitchell-Leef

Aired April 30, 2002 - 14:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Many couples balancing a career and family are choosing to have children later in life. But a new study out today suggests that biological clocks start ticking sooner in women and men than previously thought. At age 35, men only have a 29 percent chance of conception on a woman's most fertile day. Five years later, that rate falls to 18 percent.

Let's talk more about it with Dr. Dorothy Mitchell-Leef, a gynecologist and reproductive endocrinologist here in Atlanta. Your title is a mouthful. What, are they trying to scare us here?

DR. DOROTHY MITCHELL-LEEF, REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY ASSN.: Yes.

HEMMER: Is that the deal?

MITCHELL-LEEF: I don't think it's a scare tactic. But I think it's a wake-up call.

HEMMER: A wake up...

MITCHELL-LEEF: A wake-up call that had previously been that men over 50 were the ones we were concerned with, having decreased fertility. But today, 35.

HEMMER: Did it surprise you when the results of the study came out?

MITCHELL-LEEF: Yes. I think that -- the part about the women was not a surprise. I think we all had known that infertility increases after the age of 29. But the fact that the men had had a decrease in their fertility starting age 35 was definitely new.

HEMMER: What does it tell us about the physical makeup of men, based on this report and this study, that we were not alerted to before?

MITCHELL-LEEF: That you probably are much more affected by, perhaps the environment, your hormones, and just aging in general. And I think that this article did bring out the fact that aging may be one of the major reasons why we're seeing it now at 35 that we didn't before...

HEMMER: In article and in the study -- I don't mean to cut you off, there. Apologize about stepping over you -- what are they saying happens to men, physically? You're mentioning environment and aging, but is there anything more specific than that?

MITCHELL-LEEF: They said that perhaps there is a decrease in some of the hormone production for men that comes from pituitary, that stimulates testosterone production, that eventually gives you good male factor sperm. And so perhaps what we're getting is that decline -- just as we see in women, where their levels start having a problem and you decline in your egg quality -- the same thing is probably happening in men.

HEMMER: So, straighten this one out for me, then. What explains men becoming fathers in their 60s and 70s?

MITCHELL-LEEF: Well, most of the time they have very young wives. Many times that's a combination. I think the one thing that this particular article brings out is the fact that if you have an aging woman, over 30 -- that seems very young, but still, we know her fertility is declining -- and we have an aging man over 35, that that is essentially is a combination problem.

And that's the reason why we're getting a decrease in fertility for the two. So yes, those 76-year-old gentlemen did get women pregnant, but perhaps they had very much younger wives who were under the age of 28 and 30.

HEMMER: Is there a technology factor here, ultimately, that may contribute to alleviating some of this?

MITCHELL-LEEF: I think the technology is always there. We do (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sperm injection. That's obviously available and has been for the last almost ten years. But I think that what we're really seeing is that people have to realize that if they do want to start families they shouldn't wait. If they do have a combination with wife being older, or any other problems, that need to start earlier.

So I don't think it's necessarily all technology. I think it's the fact that we need to start telling people to start early.

HEMMER: Good wake-up call, as you talked about before. Dr. Dorothy Mitchell-Leef, thanks for coming in.

MITCHELL-LEEF: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com