Pregnant women who smoke tend to have sons with low sperm production, says an Australian study.
About 404 men in their 20s were contacted for a study. Their mothers were part of infant and maternal health studies when they had been pregnant a couple of decades earlier.
By conducting testicular ultrasounds on the adults, and gathering samples of their sperms from 365 men, the study looked at the median sperm production, which is the amount of sperm produced by at least half the male participants.
Lead study author, Dr. Roger Hart of the University of Western Australia, confirmed that smoking during pregnancy can lead to a number of problems for the foetuses, including low brain development in the utero, complicated deliveries, premature birth, breathing problems as well as hyperactive childhood.
"It is a general healthy lifestyle message that women should not smoke in pregnancy, they should only start to try to conceive when they are in their optimal health, and when any co-existing medical conditions have been optimized, as this is associated with good foetal growth through pregnancy and a reduced risk of premature delivery," Hart said.
Scientists noted that the production of the sperm in the men whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy was about 19 percent lower. On the other hand, men who had been born prematurely (which is also a risk for men with mothers hooked on the fag during pregnancy) reported that they had lower testosterone as adults.
With reduced testosterone levels, men might report a low sex drive, plummeting sperm count and erectile dysfunction. Smoking might even affect the growth of the foetus.
The results were arrived at even earlier, when tests were performed on only mice. "It is harder for men with low sperm counts to conceive children, or it may take a longer time to make the partner pregnant ... If women want to have grandchildren, they shouldn't smoke," researcher at the University of Copenhagen who wasn't involved in the study, Dr. Christine Wohlfahrt-Veje, told Reuters. "Unfortunately about 25 per cent of young women today continue to smoke when they are pregnant and/or breast feeding - thereby potentially damaging their sons fertility."
The recent study on humans was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
