Author Topic: Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy May Damage Sperm Of Male Offspring Later On  (Read 510 times)

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If a pregnant mother drinks alcohol she may damage the sperm and fertility of the son she is expecting, says new research presented at the 26th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome yesterday (Tuesday 29 June).

Danish doctors found that if pregnant mothers drank 4.5 or more drinks each week, the sperm concentration of their male offspring 20 years later was approximately 32% lower than other males whose mother had not drunk alcohol while pregnant with them. A drink was measured as 12 grams of alcohol, which is the equivalent to one 330 ml beer, one small (120 ml) glass of wine or one glass of spirits (40 ml).

Dr Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen, senior researcher at the Department of Occupational Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital (Denmark) and clinical associate professor at the Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, said in a news briefing:

    Our study shows that there is an association between drinking a moderate amount of alcohol (about four to five drinks a week) during pregnancy and lower sperm concentrations in sons. However, because this is an observational study we cannot say for certain that the alcohol causes the lower sperm concentrations. It is possible that drinking alcohol during pregnancy has a harmful effect on the foetal semen-producing tissue in the testes - and thereby on semen quality in later life - but our study is the first of its kind, and more research within this area is needed before any causal link can be established or safe drinking limits proposed.



Dr Ramlau-Hansen and team studied 347 sons of 11,980 women with singleton pregnancies who were recruited to the Danish "Healthy habits for two" study between 1984-1987. At about the 36th week of pregnancy the mothers answered a questionnaire on lifestyles and health. The sons were followed up between 2005-2006, when they were aged between 18-21 years, and semen and blood samples were collected and analyzed.

The sons were divided into four groups, ranging from those who were least exposed to alcohol (their mothers had drunk less than one drink a week) - and this was the reference group against which the other groups were measured - to those whose mothers drank 1-1.5 drinks a week, 2-4 drinks a week, or 4.5 or more drinks per week.

The researchers found that sons of mothers who had drunk 4.5 or more alcoholic drinks a week during pregnancy had average sperm concentrations of 25 million per milliliter, compared to the sons who were least exposed to alcohol who had sperm concentrations of 40 million/ml. After adjusting for various confounding factors, they found the sons in the group most exposed to alcohol had an average sperm concentration that was approximately 32% lower than that in the least exposed group.

The World Health Organization defines a "normal" level of sperm concentration as being approximately 20 million/ml or more.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193330.php

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