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Paracetamol in pregnancy increases risk to the offspring
The use of paracetamol in pregnancy can lead to developmental disorders in male babies and lasting impairment of fertility. So far, the intake of small amounts of paracetamol, for example, to relieve headaches during pregnancy as medically acceptable, so now here is a drastic rethinking required.
Researchers at the MRC Center for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh have shown in their research that suppressing the use of the painkiller acetaminophen during pregnancy suppresses the production of the male sex hormone testosterone. This results in more testicular defects and thus an increased risk of fertility problems in male offspring, according to the research team led by Sander van den Driesche and Joni Macdonald in the journal "Science Translational Medicine". Numerous other specialist journals, such as the "British Medical Journal" or the "Deutsches Ärzteblatt" have also warned against the frivolity of paracetamol during pregnancy, given the current study results.
The unborn child may be harmed by taking acetaminophen during pregnancy. Image: Jonathan / fotolia.com Increased risk of undescended testicles
In 2011, an epidemiological study had already identified a significantly increased risk for the development of so-called cryptorchidism (testicular elevation) in boys whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy. "In the affected children, it may later come to a reduced fertility and an increased risk of the occurrence of malignant testicular tumors," reports the Pain Clinic Kiel. The combined use of two analgesics in pregnant women has even been linked to a seven-fold increase in the rate of neonatal boy cryptorchidism. However, a causal relationship in the study at that time could not be clearly proven.
Significantly reduced testosterone production
The current study has now investigated the relationship between the intake of paracetamol in pregnancy and the fertility of children in an experimental approach simulating conditions during human pregnancy by using castrated human fetal testicular tissue and then paracetamol or a placebo. In the mice treated with paracetamol for seven days, the level of testosterone in the blood was on average 45 percent lower than in the mice of the placebo group. If the animals only received paracetamol for one day, there was no significant effect on testosterone production. The researchers did not analyze the period between two and six days. Subsequent studies in the uterus of rats showed that the paracetamol-induced reduction of testosterone production presumably goes back to a reduced expression of special key enzymes, the researchers write in the journal "Science Translational Medicine".
Serious effects of taking acetaminophen in pregnancy
The scientists of the University of Edinburgh were able to decipher for the first time with their study "how paracetamol disturbs male sex hormones during the development of the genitals in the womb in male fetuses," commented Professor Hartmut Göbel, chief physician of the Pain Clinic Kiel, the results. The study was particularly informative because the paracetamol concentration in the study was not higher than the usual therapeutic dosage for pain in humans. Even after taking seven days of pregnancy lifelong adverse effects for the unborn children are to be feared. The study is further evidence of the serious effects of taking paracetamol in pregnancy. Pregnant women should definitely be made aware of the new study results, so that they can decide consciously and actively whether, based on this data, acetaminophen can be responsible for the treatment of headache or back pain, according to the report of the Pain Clinic Kiel. The use of paracetamol during pregnancy should also be discussed with the doctor in any case. (Fp)
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