Mothers who smoke during pregnancy or while breastfeeding could be endangering their sons’ fertility, research shows.
Scientists have found it permanently damages the reproductive organs so they produce faulty sperm.
They say many men now in their 30s and 40s may be suffering the effects of their mothers smoking throughout pregnancy.
Around one in eight women now smoke when pregnant although this percentage was far higher in the 1970s and 80s when so little was known about its harmful effects.
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Australian scientists have found smoking while pregnant or breastfeeding damages unborn boys' reproductive organs, causing them to produce faulty sperm
Australian researchers studied mice who inhaled the equivalent of 24 cigarettes a day before giving birth.
They found that the male pup mice produced far fewer sperm and they were of poorer quality.
Although the study was only in mice the researchers say the findings are relevant to mothers.
Professor Eileen McLaughlin, co-director of the Priority Research Centre in Chemical Biology at the University of Newcastle, in New South Wales, said: ‘It would be unethical to deliberately expose pregnant mothers and their offspring to the toxins in cigarettes.
‘We already know that smoking in pregnancy harms the baby in the womb as babies are often born small and vulnerable to disease.
‘So in this study we used a mouse animal model which directly mimics human smoking, to look at what effects the mothers smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding has on the fertility of their male pups.
‘Our results show that male pups of ‘smoking’ mothers have fewer sperm, which swim poorly, are abnormally shaped and fail to bind eggs.
‘This is the first time we have been able to prove conclusively that male baby exposure to cigarette toxins in pregnancy will damage later life fertility.
The researchers said even if the boys never touched a cigarette during their teens or adulthood their cells could be permanently damaged from their mothers’ bad habits
‘Although this is a study in mice, the findings are relevant to human health as many men, now in their 30s and 40s, were exposed to cigarette toxins in the womb when it was less well known that smoking affected babies’ health.’
The researchers, whose study is published in the journal Human Reproduction, say even if the boys never touched a cigarette during their teens or adulthood their cells could be permanently damaged from their mothers’ bad habits.
They are now investigating whether mother’s smoking also affects the future fertility of their daughters.
Doctors say that every time a pregnant woman smokes a cigarette it is like putting their foetus in a smoky room for 15 minutes.
It has been shown to greatly increase the risk of stillbirth, miscarriage, prematurity and the baby being born underweight
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2776109/Smoking-pregnant-breastfeeding-endangers-boys-fertility-damaging-sperm.html#ixzz3Eun4FdPH
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