Halle Berry
Halle Berry poses backstage at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California August 25, 2014. Reuters/Mike Blake

A breakthrough has come for women who wish to conceive at later stages of their lives. A new research suggests that women in their 40s should seek younger partners to conceive successfully.

The new research is done by McGill University in Montreal, Canada. This supports the 'cougar' trend, which encourages women of advanced age to date younger lovers. The research has concluded that women who mate with men of similar age struggles more to conceive than those who seek younger partners.

This new study indicates that although there is no evident menopause experienced by men, they still have a biological clock-a claim contrary to the popular belief that men do not age sexually. It was believed everywhere in the world that men could become fathers at any age as they continue to produce new sperms every time, but this research reportedly provides proof otherwise.

Scientists are now changing their outlook regarding the same. They have now acknowledged that mutations can also alter the reproduction ability of sperms over time, which could be aggravated by environmental toxins and lifestyle choices, as told by the Telegraph. This brings us to conclusion that women who desire to have babies in their 40s will find higher success with younger guys than with men with similar age.

This fact might help in understanding the trend of cougars, such as Sam Taylor-Wood and Halle Berry, who are in relationships with much younger men and also have kids with them. Michael Dahan of McGill University even said that this can be a solution offered to older women seeking to get pregnant. These ladies are then advised to choose men as young as possible whose sperm will be surely in better health than older guys. This will definitely increase their chances of conceiving.

In the research, 631 women aged between 40 and 46 and their partners ranged from 25 to 70 years of age were studied closely. When the women were further divided based on whether they are mothers or not, results show that men of average age 43 and above were not fathers, regardless of the age of the woman.

The studies simply suggests that both men and women have biological clocks and their fertility decreases drastically once they hit 40. This research paper was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting conducted in Hawaii recently.