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Non CAH news item.
Mar. 23rd, 2007 5:27am

It amazes me how often we find that when we interfere with the course of nature that unforeseen problems emerge later on. Could this be yet another example?

Male Offspring of Assisted Reproduction Less Fertile

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 14 - A study of young men undergoing compulsory physical examination for military service shows that men whose mothers underwent fertility treatments to conceive appear to have impaired reproductive health, Danish researchers report in the March issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Dr. Tina Kold Jensen and colleagues at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, studied 1925 young Danish men who underwent a physical examination and volunteered to provide a semen sample, a blood sample and to complete a questionnaire.
When the mothers were asked if they had received fertility treatments to conceive their son, 47 women confirmed that they had.
After controlling for confounders, the researchers found that compared with the other men, those conceived with fertility treatment had a 46% lower sperm concentration, a 45% lower total sperm count, smaller testes, fewer motile sperm and fewer morphologically normal spermatozoa.
These men also had a lower serum testosterone level and free androgen index. However, these differences were not statistically significant.
Dr. Jensen told Reuters Health that although it is not clear what mechanisms are involved, "the significantly reduced sperm counts, fewer motile sperm and other findings are of concern, particularly in light of current low fertility rates and increasing use of fertility treatments."
"Larger-scale follow-up studies," she concluded, "should help provide more information on the possible causes and late effects of assisted reproductive techniques."
Am J Epidemiol 2007;165:583-590.