OLDER DADS: ARE YOU EVER TOO OLD TO BECOME A FATHER?

What are the risks and rewards, to you and your children, of becoming a father late in life?

-  HAYLEY BENNETT

We're all aware of the limits that menopause places on female fertility. But we're perhaps less concerned with what happens to male fertility past W middle age. With movie stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro welcoming children at 83 and 79, respectively, it's easy to assume that age is no barrier to becoming a father (the official record stands at 92).

But is it really that straightforward? The age that people become parents has been rising since the mid-1970s and is now at an all-time high, with the average age for fathers being 34, compared to 31 for mothers. As male parents are most often dependent on female partners - usually of a similar age to conceive, this rise applies to men as much as it does to women.

But as fertility specialist Dr Sarah Martins da Silva from the University of Dundee notes, the reasons why parents of any sex - keep getting older are complicated. "I think there's a bigger political, socioeconomic discussion around that relating to the economy, provision of childcare and people not being so financially stable," she says.