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NEW YORK, July 3, 2004
Monday, June 9, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Sons of mothers who smoked
more than 10 cigarettes a day during pregnancy
have lower sperm
counts than sons whose
mothers did not smoke, according to a new study from Denmark.
In the study, sons of smokers
also tended to have lower levels
of a hormone that has been linked
to sperm production and to have sperm that was less
dense than average, researchers
report.
“There has been an apparent decline in sperm density during the last
five decades in Denmark, a country in which women have among the highest
rates of smoking in Europe,”
Dr. Lone Storgaard, of Aarhus University Hospital, and colleagues note
in the journal Epidemiology.
The researchers collected a semen sample
and a blood sample from each
of 316 men between November 1999 and May 2000. Mothers of 265 of the men
completed questionnaires on how much they smoked during pregnancy.
After adjusting for age, current
smoking status and various other factors, the investigators found that
sperm density was 48 percent lower among sons of mothers who smoked more
than 10 cigarettes a day during pregnancy compared with those whose mothers
did not smoke.
Men whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day also had lower
total sperm counts and lower levels of inhibin B, a hormone that has been
linked to sperm production.
These effects were not seen in the sons of women who smoked one to 10
cigarettes per day when they were pregnant, Storgaard and colleagues note.
Storgaard’s team speculates that components of tobacco smoke may somehow
affect fetal cells that
are important for sperm production later in life.
SOURCE: Epidemiology 2003;14:278-286.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/smoking.html