Women who take painkillers amid pregnancy might be adversely influencing the future fertility of the unborn child and their descendants. Certain medications, counting paracetamol, ought to be used with caution amid pregnancy.
Researchers exposed Paracetamol and Ibuprofen on samples of human fetal testes and ovaries. They found similar effects utilizing a few diverse experimental approaches, counting lab tests on human tissue tests and animal studies.
Human tissues exposed to either medicate for one week in a dish had reduced numbers of germ cells. Ovaries exposed to paracetamol for one week had more than 40% less egg-producing cells. After ibuprofen introduction, the number of cells was nearly halved.
The study also indicated that painkiller exposure during development could have effects on unborn boys too. They found testicular tissue exposed to painkillers in a culture dish had around a quarter fewer sperm-producing cells after exposure to paracetamol or ibuprofen.
The effects of painkiller treatment on mice that carried grafts of human null testicular tissue were also observed. After one day of treatment with a human-equivalent dose of paracetamol, the number of sperm-producing cells in the graft tissue had dropped by 17% and by around 30% after a week.
Such reductions are detrimental for girls as they produce all their eggs while still in their mother’s womb. In normal circumstances, baby girls usually have about a million eggs at birth. But at puberty only about 300,000 remains. Thereafter, a huge proportion is shed monthly when women have their periods until they are depleted from the age of 50 when women hit menopause.
Therefore, being born with fewer eggs could lead to early menopause, thus making conception elusive for otherwise young women. The ability of women to have children decreases as they age due to the deteriorating number and quality of eggs.
For unborn boys, the study found that the painkillers led them to have 25 percent fewer sperm-producing cells. Having low sperm counts is a major cause of male infertility. This is because a man usually has to produce millions of sperms so as to enhance chances of just one lucky one fertilising an egg.
For pain relief, paracetamol (used in moderation) is recommended as a safer choice compared to ibuprofen. This is because taking ibuprofen or other null anti-inflammatory drugs in the last few weeks of pregnancy has been linked to low levels of amniotic fluid which can cause problems with how the baby grows and how well the lungs develop.
If volumes of the fluid decrease during the first trimester of pregnancy, and the early part of the second trimester, then the risk of miscarriage will increase. And in the most serious cases, low amniotic fluid can also cause a baby to be stillborn.
There are also concerns that some medications may delay or prolong labor. And if used within a week of delivery, they heighten bleeding risk which is life-threatening for both the mother and her child.
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